Retired jockey and Ruidoso, N.M., resident Casey Chavez learned the fate of his home via the KOAT News station out of Albuquerque, N.M. He watched in horror as video footage of his hardly recognizable Ford Mustang appeared on the television screen.
“Now it looks similar to a crushed tin can,” Chavez said.
Like many people tied to racing in the Ruidoso area, 49-year-old Chavez had to relocate as the fires approached. He had only an hour to evacuate his home and take whatever belongings he could fit into his girlfriend’s truck. Chavez, his girlfriend, and her son then fled the oncoming peril, a wall of smoke and flames in the rearview mirror.
According to national news reports, more than 1,400 structures—half of them residences—have been destroyed by two wildfires that have ravaged New Mexico since the morning of June 17. As Ruidoso Downs is one of the Quarter Horse racing capitals of the world, and a track that also offers Thoroughbred racing, Chavez is just one of many people with racing ties to be impacted.
“I hadn’t seen the fire at first, but state troopers were in the area screaming at us to leave saying ‘It’s coming, it’s coming!'” Chavez recounted. “But then the next moment I looked up from putting my bag in the car and I just see these towering 150-foot flames behind my house. It was pretty scary.
A photo of the looming fire and smoke behind Chavez’s home before his evacuation June 17
“The smoke was pretty bad; it was hard to see. We started driving down this hill away from my house and these embers started falling down around us.”
They drove 35 minutes south to Chavez’s girlfriend’s family home in the small New Mexico village of Tularosa, which had been unaffected by the fire’s path.
After 19 seasons of riding on the Kentucky, Ohio, and Maryland racing circuits, Chavez retired in 2012 due to a serious neck injury. However, he returned to the saddle in 2016 and moved his tack out West, where he competed primarily in New Mexico at Zia Park, Sunland Park, Albuquerque Downs, and Ruidoso Downs.
A multiple stakes-winning jockey, Chavez hung up his tack last June after riding 561 winners from 7,190 starts. He now uses his own prior experiences with injury and rehabilitation from his years as a rider in a new career as a physical therapist’s assistant. He had worked at a local PT clinic for less than a year before the wildfires uprooted his life.
“I just want to rebuild what I have,” Chavez said. “I’m almost starting from scratch because I hardly have anything left. We didn’t have much time before we left; we had maybe an hour to evacuate. I just have to process everything that happened and go from there. It’s all about small steps I guess. It’s tough to get your head wrapped around.”
It could be weeks before Chavez can return to Ruidoso.
As of Friday morning, both the South Fork Fire and Salt Fire remain largely uncontained and the cities of Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs remain under evacuation orders. The El Paso Times reported that 24,000 acres have been burned and two people have died in the tragedy. President Biden approved a disaster declaration Thursday that will supply federal aid to local recovery efforts and financial assistance to individuals affected by the fire.
A GoFundMe page has been created for Chavez and his family. Click here to donate.
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