is held annually. After a flood covered fields in gravel and silt in the small village of Ruidoso Downs, an informal race track was built on the fields in the 1940s. Bets varied from as "little as a bag of oats or $10,000 to $50,000 was being bet." A rodeo stand was moved from the village of
Capitan, New Mexico to the field in 1945. Arizona investor Eugene Hensley bought the racetrack in 1953, becoming its general manager. Over the next decade the facility would undergo a number of expansions, and around 1957, the All American Futurity was created by Hensley, Carl Mercer, and cowboy musician
Ray Reed. Held at the racetrack on Labor Day starting in 1959, they added The Rainbow Futurity in 1964. Though the track had fallen into disrepair, within a year Hubbard and a business partner invested several million dollars into improving the track. 1989 also saw the addition of simulcast racing and wagering, while Hubbard bought out Allred in 1991. In February 2025 track management announced that Ruidoso Downs would focus exclusively on Quarter Horse racing for that year, adding that repairs from the floods were continuing. However, in July the track was once again affected by heavy flooding and the rest of the year's racing was cancelled. At the time of the cancellation announcement, there was no word on the fate of the 2025 All American Futurity. ==Physical attributes==