TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Pima County Supervisors are considering what to do with the horse racing track at Rillito Park. In Tuesday's Board meeting, supervisors heard from a youth soccer booster who urged them to move racing somewhere else and devote the entire park to soccer, pickleball and other community uses.
Rillito Park has hosted horse racing since the 1940s, but right now Pima County has no contractor willing to run the racing operation.
Ted Schmidt of FC Tucson has spent many years urging Supervisors to use the track area to expand soccer fields that already take up much of the rest of the park.
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Schmidt says he wants to see Rillito Park used to relieve a shortage of playing fields, and to move horse racing to a location like Marana or the Pima County Fairgrounds.
“The historical aspects of it could be preserved. We could have horse races in southern Arizona for as long as people are interested in doing that," Schmidt said. "But in the meantime, we cannot look past the fact that our community has grown rapidly. We have so many folks looking to recreate, and they don’t have a place to do it.”
Schmidt says with more soccer fields, Rillito Park could host large regional tournaments.
Other speakers at Tuesday’s meeting urged the county to alter its bidding requirements to improve the chance of attracting a group to manage horse racing at Rillito.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
