Workers are smoothing out a pile of manure at The Downs at Santa Fe horse racetrack in New Mexico.

Crews are spreading the manure four to five inches thick over a 40-acre parcel of the track.The manure will be tilled into the soil and native grasses will be planted. Officials have said up to 200,000 cubic yards of manure were on The Downs property when Pojoaque Pueblo bought the track in 1996.The manure pile accumulated during the more than 20 years that The Downs operated as a racetrack.

The tribe ran horses at The Downs for two seasons before closing it in 1997. The track’s current manager, Carl Potter, says most of the pile was removed between 2002 and 2005. The chief executive officer in charge of the pueblo’s business holdings, Allen Mosley, says the pile should be completely spread out in March