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Rillito Horse Racing Gets New Lease On Life Through 2021
Historic Rillito Park Racetrack, whose 2017 season opens February 11 in Tucson, received a lease extension from the Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

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Rillito Horse Racing Gets New Lease On Life Through 2021

TUCSON, AZ—JANUARY 17, 2017—With a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday, Pima County supervisors extended the lease for Rillito Park horse racing through 2021, likely guaranteeing $1 million in private funding for needed repairs and improvements at the aging track.

Before the vote, the supervisors heard from a number of people, the vast majority of whom spoke in favor of extending the lease and keeping Rillito horse racing alive.

''We need to honor the past, and history of horse racing, and history of events and concerts,'' said Page Repp, co-creator of the Dusk Music Festival held at Rillito. ''If it’s stewarded correctly, it can become the hub of an amazing amount of future activity.''

The Tucson Soccer Academy’s Ebie Aldaghi, one of a handful of speakers to ask the supervisors to stick to their 2006 resolution supporting complete conversion to sports fields, said more fields is what the board unanimously decided was ''best for the community.''

County officials estimate that getting rid of the racing facilities and adding as many soccer fields as the park can accommodate would cost around $8 million, an expense that is not budgeted.

Despite the years-long tension between horse racing and some local youth soccer organizations, which have advocated for converting the entire park to sports fields and moving the horse racing facilities, representatives of the two sides had positive things to say after the vote.

''We appreciate the opportunity to show that we can succeed,'' Russell True, director of the Rillito Park Foundation Board, a subsidiary that oversees horse racing and won the lease extension, told the Star after the vote.

A list of over $2 million in needed repairs and improvements for racing facilities was included in the lease amendment approved by the supervisors. Among the priorities listed were bringing racetrack bathrooms into ADA compliance, electrical work in the grandstand and clubhouse, and clubhouse roof repairs.

Huckelberry’s recommendation to the board also included limiting race days to 16, something foundation President Jaye Wells previously told the Star could limit the potential of horse racing.