Emerald Downs opened its gates for the inaugural season two decades ago, June 20, 1996.
The Auburn oval celebrates its 20th anniversary Monday with the first race post time at 6:30 p.m.
Opening day 20 years ago featured a full card of racing, with Strawberry Morn winning the $35,000 U.S. Bank Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. More impressive than the filly’s win was the return of thoroughbred horse racing to the state after three years.
The Monday when Longacres Park in Renton closed, Sept. 21, 1992, shock waves ripped through the horse racing community. There were questions whether thoroughbred horse racing had come to a close in Washington state after a 59-year run at Longacres, interrupted only for the 1943 season during World War II when the military took the track to use as a supply depot.
Seattle real estate businessman Joe Gottstein and partner Bill Edris opened Longacres on Aug. 3, 1933. In 1935 Gottstein found the key that has defined Northwest horse racing to this day, the Longacres Mile.
Gottstein was looking for a race and a draw that would set his track apart. He came up with a flat mile and gave it a $10,000 purse, a barrel full of money in the midst of the Great Depression. The purse and the 1-mile distance gave Gottstein the attention he was seeking; at two turns it was too long for a sprinter, but a few clicks short for route horses. The $10,000-added purse was the richest 1-mile race in the nation on Aug. 24, 1935.
The first Mile drew 16 horses including the grandson of Man o’ War, Biff, the 3-to-1 favorite. The inaugural Mile lived up to its hype. Coldwater at 20-to-1 passed Biff in the final strides, and the premier race in the Northwest was born.
Boeing buys property
When Morrie Alhadeff, Gottstein’s son-in-law, and his two grandsons, Michael and Ken Alhadeff, sold the track to the Boeing Company in 1990 for $90 million, the Longacres Mile and many other dramatic Northwest horse racing moments appeared to be on the verge of becoming memories and a series of photos on a wall.
During the ensuing years between the sale, the day Longacres closed and the opening of Emerald Downs, there were numerous groups and individuals working on plans to bring horse racing back.
Ron Crockett was the one person who found the solution to the equation. As president of Northwest Racing Associates, Crockett headed the effort to build Emerald Downs for $81 million.
“Yes, I went through ups and downs on individual days,” Crockett said in a 20th anniversary release. “But I never considered stopping.”
Once the track was built, Crockett continued as president and owner with Northwest Racing until 2014 when the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe purchased the track. The tribe had acquired the land, 157 acres, in 2002, and had been supplementing the purses each year since.
According to the Emerald Downs Media Department, since opening day about 17,000 races have been run.
Longacres Mile lives on
The Longacres Mile has continued to be the centerpiece of the meet. This season the $200,000 Grade 3 Mile runs Aug. 14.
In 1996 Isitingood, trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Mike Pegram, won the first Longacres Mile run at Emerald Downs.
Trainer Jim Penney won his record-setting third, fourth and fifth Miles with Edneator in 2000, Gallyn Mitchell was in the irons, Sabertooth ridden by Nathan Chaves in 2002 and Flamethrowintexan in 2006 ridden by Ricky Frazier.
Howard Belvoir won back-to-back Miles with Wasserman, ridden by Jennifer Whitaker in 2008, and in 2009 with Assessment ridden by Mitchell.
Larry Ross stood in the winner’s circle in back-to-back Mile victories, with the same horse, Stryker Phd, ridden by Leslie Mawing. Only two other horses have won the Mile twice in a row: Trooper Seven, 1980 and 1981; and Simply Majestic, 1988 and 1989.
Crockett added his name to the winner’s circle in the Mile with The Great Face in 2007, conditioned by Tom Wenzel and ridden by Juan Gutierrez. Raise the Bluff ran second to The Great Face that year in the Mile. Crockett, who was born and raised in Renton and graduated from the University of Washington in 1962, is the all-time leading owner in wins and earning. He is third in stakes victories.
When Crockett completed the sale of the track to the tribe, he said his goal was to preserve racing. He guided the industry through two of its darkest times, the closing of Longacres and the Great Recession, and he said the tribe will now take the track to the next level.
