Phil Ziegler joins Vince as Co-Host - Episode #119

Joe is a little under the weather, so Track President, Phil Ziegler, steps in to Co-Host with Vince. Trainer, Alexis Silva-Martinez, stops by to talk about Coastal Kid, who had an impressive win in the feature race last Sunday. Promotions Manager, Gary Dougherty, guests on the show to talk about all the promotions and special events this season. This Weekend is a Family Fun Weekend! Plenty of fun activities for the kids, including the Kids Race on the track on Sunday! First race on Saturday & Sunday is @ 1:30pm.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Much us. It doesn't matter ifyou love craps, blackjack machines or dining
on the finest Asian, American andSalish cuisines. It doesn't matter what you
do or where you're coming from,mucous what you do is all at Muckleshoe,
an easy drive from wherever you are, All roads lead to Muckleshoe,

(00:28):
Mucosuit. Welcome to the horse RacyNorthwest Podcast, Bill Zebra and Vince Brune.

(00:54):
Here Joe with the taking the weekoff, Joe Yettle, under the
weather just a little bit bit,and of course Joe. First of all,
welcome Bill and everyone knows Bill ourtrack present here. But Joe of
course needs to save his voice,so he had a big weekend with the
Freakness coming up and racing on Saturdayand Sunday. But we just want to
share everyone. Joe's okay. Iknow he is okay. He's feeling better,

(01:17):
but still a little bit with hisvoice. So, like you said,
he needs to be ready for theweekend. So we're going to talk
horse racing here on the podcast.Now. I was on last week as
a guest, so I get tobe the host this week and a lot
of excitement this past weekend, greatweather, Mother's Day weekend, the buffet,
Great Racing and Vince. The crowdwas as loud as I've heard it

(01:38):
here in maybe years. It wasjust an exciting atmosphere. Yeah, and
I'm always bullish about our on trackatmosphere. Hit Emerald Downs and that goes
double for last Sunday. There theroar went up whenever the horses were coming
through the stretch. And if you'rea fan or you're a horseman or a
participant jockey or whatever, that getsthe adrenaline going. Yeah. It's what

(02:00):
lured me into horse racing many manyyears ago, was just the overall atmosphere
of the racetrack and that was great. Yeah, we're going to talk a
triple crown, of course, withthe Preakness coming up this Saturday. And
I grew up on Long Island inNew York, so our event was always
the Belmont Stakes, and I'd beento quite a few of those and a
couple of Breeders' Cups as well.And there's something about the atmosphere here that

(02:23):
almost makes you feel like there's abig event going on like that almost every
weekend when we have these big crowds. They're cheering and screaming and yelling,
and there are claiming races and allowanceraces. These aren't big stakes races,
but the fans are really into it, and especially like the weather was a
little iffy for the opening day,but of course we had the Kentucky Derby

(02:45):
going on that day. But theweather was great last week and that just
really enhances everything. Yeah, andfor folks listening kind of around the country
or wherever you happen to be,if you ever make it to Seattle,
you got to come out for alive race. They hear at Emerald Downs.
It is special. And this pastweekend on the track, you have

(03:05):
some weekly honors to give out,and this is now. You didn't have
weekly honors because we had just oneday week one. So this is for
the first three first three days Mayfourth, May eleventh, and May twelfth,
and from here on in we'll havethem every week as we go,
two days the next couple weeks andthen Fridays beginning on May thirty first,
then we start the three day weeks. So okay, yeah, for Valpak

(03:27):
Jockey of the Week, who elsebut Alex Cruz going for his fifth straight
writing title. You got to beconsistent to win a title. Well,
how about writing doubles the first threedays for Alex Cruz, so he's often
running here. In twenty twenty four, last Margarita's Trainer of the Week,
Blaine Wright, had no surprise there. Blaine wins on the first three cards,
a double on opening day and Phil, he is really supporting the racing

(03:51):
program already sixteen starts for Blaine Wright. And boy, that really helps if
you're the racing secretary here at EmeraldDowns. And yeah, we haven't even
seared the stakes race program yet andhe's always very active with that. Yeah,
and Blaine out in force and helooks prime for another great meet.
We saw justin Evans back last weekend, so I'm sure we'll see his stable

(04:13):
beginning to pile up the wins herebefore long too. Muckle Shute Casino Owner
of the Week is Luigi and DeannaDpatro. They own and bred Mister Mafioso,
who was the feature race winner lastSaturday. Luigi, everyone knows him
well here at the track. TheWTVOA Washington Bread Coastal Kid bred by Ron
and Nina Hagen. We're gonna haveAlexis Silva Martinez on his trainer and Coastal

(04:38):
Kid. You might recall one thetwenty twenty one Muckle Shoot Tribal Classic here
at Emerald dwn's well as a sixyear old. He's now two for three
and the Washington Bread's performing really well. In fact, they've won the first
three feature races here Coastal Jazz,Mister Mafioso and Coastal Kid. And then
finally our quarter shoot Cafe groom ofthe Week Nestor Penniolas from the Frank Lucarelli

(05:00):
Barn. Phil you know which horsehe grooms, No, Lion de I,
who was partly owned by Gary Dorythe Trifecta King was owned was owned.
He was claiming for eight thousand andGary will be on today in our
third segment. But yeah, misterPinniolas, Frank has a lot of great
grooms, so he's our groom ofthe week. So of course this weekend

(05:23):
coming up with a family fun weekend, lots of great stuff for the kids.
Now, Saturday's weather looks a littleiffy. If it's cloudy or rainy
or something like that and cold,we'll move some of the activities inside to
the grand stand by the arcade,otherwise they'll be in the park. And
Sunday we have our first kids raceof the year to go along with bounce
houses, pony rides, and facepainting. What's interesting to me is that

(05:46):
everywhere I go and I see facepainters and pony rides, they charge like
ten fifteen dollars. All of thatis free with your admission here in Emerald
Down So you can bring the kidsout and they can have just a rate
time. Especially on Sunday, theyget to go out and run in a
kids race out of the starting gate. It's just for the fun of it.
Fourteen and under and if your kid, if you're a little bit afraid

(06:11):
of your kid being out there alone, you can go out with your kid,
take pictures and videos and then everyparticipant gets a free ice cream and
rumor has it will have them pulledup this year before they hit the backstretch.
Yeah, the first kids race lastyear, we didn't have enough folks
at the finish line, and thekids just kept running and running and running,
and they made it all the wayout to almost the six for a
while. They had a great time. Yeah, and a reminder, of

(06:32):
course, with this year. Weare half hour earlier, one thirty pm
post on Saturday and Sunday, Saturdaycourse the Preakness, simulcass. We'll talk
a bit about the Preakness Sunday.The weather looking pretty good, yeah,
yeah, sixty five and clear atlast, look, so that it will
be a lot of fun. Yeah, And Saturday we'll run four races or
race five races, and then we'regoing to take a break for the Preakness.

(06:55):
We'll show that up on the bigscreen. And exciting because anytimes there's
the possibility of a Triple Crown winner. Of course, the Derby winner almost
always runs in the Preakness, butthis year there was some indecision originally on
whether he was going to run ornot. Yes, Ken McPeek, the
trainer of Mystic Dan, I thoughtin the back of my mind, when

(07:15):
push comes to show, I mean, you know, you get a chance
at the Triple Crown. So I'mnot saying it wasn't slammed up, but
happy to see that he'll be inthe starting gate. Mooth. The course
we all know by now was scratched, so we will talk more about the
Preaknesses. We go on and asyou said, Phil after Race five here
at umroll Down's on Saturday. Yeah, and it's an interesting betting grace and
of course Bob Bafford, who's notin the derby, is back here with

(07:42):
now one Horse imagination. Yes,so very good chance to win. So
we'll save our picks for that fora little bit later on. Also kind
of notable something happening around the trackhere debuting as we taped this podcast later
on this evening at Pacific Lutheran Universe. We've had a bunch of their program,

(08:03):
their film and documentary program folks outhere shooting footage and they're debuting that
at the Grand Sentiment in Tacoma,the Grand Theater in Tacoma tonight. So
outstanding. Yeah, that's great.And I know our guest in the second
segment, Joe Withe says, Alexissil Martinez a big hand in their helping

(08:24):
during that production. Yeah. Andthe students, you know, they interviewed
me and some of the questions theyhad was great. And just having them
around here, and you know,these are college students who don't know a
lot about horse racing, learning aboutit and seeing what goes on here.
I think the looks on their faces. They were also fascinated at the topic
that they chose for this school projectthat they're having. So we'll see what

(08:48):
that looks like. Because that willbe available. Hopefully we can share a
link so that our folks can thenyou bet watch that online see that.
I think it's great to see youngpeople involved in thoroughbred racing like that.
As we've always said our industry,you know, we've taken some hits,
but this just shows if they comeout they can't help but be impressed with
the work of the horsemen and thehorses. Yeah, and gates opening early
this weekend, both on Friday andSaturday. I think we open it.

(09:13):
I should have that written down,but we start real early on Saturday because
for folks that don't know. Ifyou're not coming out for live racing,
you can come earlier any day.Actually we're open all seven days for simulcasting.
But there's a lot of great racesfrom Pimlico. You can go up
to the fifth floor and be hereat seven thirty or eight in the morning.
I think they start and come onin and bet on all the races
from all over the country. Fourteenraces Saturday at Pimlico, And you want

(09:37):
to talk about atmosphere at that fifthfloor during a triple Crown race is pretty
great for atmosphere. Yeah, everybodygets into especially on Derby Day because there
were so many more people in thebuilding because of the weather weather outside,
and they were all watching that bigscreen up on five in the bar area
in the simulcast center as well.So you know, horse racing. People

(09:58):
ask me, like in the offseason, what goes on? What do
you guys do? I mean,we're open seven days a week, three
sixty four. We don't have racingon Christmas, but every other day there's
horse racing from somewhere and you cancome and watch and wager on it right
here at emerl Downs. And admissionis free for simulcasting. Yeah, and
the fifth floor was redone about fiveor six years ago now and it is

(10:18):
a great place to throw it atanchor and watch simulcast racing. Now,
you have been very busy with thisdynamic morning line and we'll explain this again.
We are trying something very different thisyear at Emeral Downs. Were the
first track to do this because inpast years, I say the last five

(10:39):
years in particular, race players lookand see odds changing at the last second,
so betters feel like, oh,I bet my horse he was five
to one and he went off ateight to five. Now, most of
the time you could look at probablepools and kind of figure it out who's
going to get bet. So whatwe've done here has made that a little

(11:00):
little bit easier with the dynamic morningline. So Vince, you do the
original morning line and then as youlook at the probables and punch it into
this formula and spreadsheet you have,you then come up with a dynamic morning
line and show that to the public, which is really a good indication of
how the horse is going to getbet at post time and what it will

(11:20):
go off at. And you've hadtremendous success even in these first three days.
Yeah, and Gary Doherty's been abig help with me on that,
and yeah, it what you seeis what you want to have happen,
is none of those surprises. Becausesocial media we all see it light up
when a horse is five to onein the gate and then it's you know,
two to one when they cross thewire and aha, someone knew something

(11:41):
or well, with a dynamic morningline, you can kind of prepare them
for that and just say, look, we kind of know based on the
will pays where the money is goingto go when all is said and done.
Here, you know. And onSaturday, in the last race,
fifteen to one morning line, yep, your dynamic morning line had a horse
at five to one. The horsegoes off at five to one and wins

(12:03):
in easy horse called fruit Loots,And in retrospect, that was probably a
little miss on the morning line.To begin with, the horse had only
run once in a maiden special weightlast year and now was in a maiden
ten and improved a lot, ashorses want to do in their second start.
But once you saw the willelpays,yeah, you knew Fruit Loots was

(12:24):
going to get some action. We'vehad other ones the exact opposite, where
the early money is on the horse, but the nine to five or two
to one in the early wagering,but the horse is six or seventh choice
in the willlpays, and you goto just settle down, everybody, when
all when the gates open, thishorse is going to be back up near
its ten to one morning line.And sometimes by looking at that dynamic morning

(12:46):
line, there was an instance wheresomebody made a big bet on a long
shot and drove the odds down andit didn't show up in the willpay.
So your dynamic morning line had thishorse a lot higher than what it went
off at, which meant the otherhorses had great value in the race.
And people can look at your dynamicmorning line and interpret it to say,

(13:07):
well, wait a second, thathorse has you know, it's getting bet
in the wind pool, but notin the willpays. Look elsewhere. That
horse ran last, yes, andit was I forget the name of the
horse now, but it opened upat six to five and had a big,
large wager on it, and youkind of tell it was one and
only one person doing the wager becauseyou look at the doubles and the pick
threes and the horse was nowhere.So you're pretty confident that, okay,

(13:31):
this horse is going to go upin price when all is said and done.
So that's where that can be handy. Where now if that situation that
you know the willpays were low,it's like, yeah, okay, the
morning line was wrong. This horseis clearly very live. That wasn't the
case on that one. Quite theopposite. It was one big bet and
the horse ended up drifting and itdidn't quite reach its fifteen to one,

(13:54):
but I think it went off atten to one. Yeah, And there's
a you know, we have inhorse racing, these computer wage groups that
are out there. It's no secret, it's been written about in all the
industry publications, and they are batchbetting, and they're running algorithms on the
races, and all their bets comein at basically less than a minute to
post time. So a lot ofthe times when you're watching the race,

(14:16):
you'll see the race start and thenthat last batch of money comes in.
It comes in before the race starts. Now a lot of people think,
well, how is that happening?How are the odds changing after the race
goes, But they're really not.That money is all wager documented. It
shows up on the topeboard, refresheslike every ten seconds, So after ten

(14:37):
seconds of the race, you'll seethat final odds update come in and see
what everybody bet. And sometimes thewind pool will double or more just in
that last minute. You'll see ahorse at one to five. Yeah,
couple, and your dynamic morning lineis kind of predicting when those things are
going to happen. So players aren'tas surprised. And so far it's been
a great success. And I willsay that the U the racing here has

(15:01):
been very competitive. I think favoritesare seven for twenty four, which is
twenty nine percent, you know,which tells you that you know, it's
it's it's uh, you're getting someprices out there. So far, we
had a fifty four dollars winner theother day called Northern Blend. We've had
several double digit horses. In fact, on Sunday one winning ticket and the
pick five paid eighteen, five hundredand thirty three dollars. Now, aside

(15:24):
from that fifty four dollars horse,which your granted is tough, the other
winners paid eleven dollars four twenty andtwo eight dollars winners. Yeah, so
that was quite a bargain. Actually, whoever hit that and that person that
was only alive to just one horsein the last race, that seven horse
that won the race, and nobodyhit the pick six, So we're starting
to get a little bit thirty fourdollars. Yeah, Daredevil Princess boy,

(15:46):
how nice was that if you werethe one alive? Because Alex Cruz had
that horse two lengths in front,about five strides out of the gate,
and it was it was never endout, it was over. I know.
Well, when we come back,we're going to talk. We're going
to talk to our guest, andwe're going to have Gary here as well.
More fun and again Joe Withee nothere this week, a little under
the weather. He's fine, savinghis voice for the weekend, which is,

(16:07):
you know, probably more important thanthis podcast. Not that this podcast
isn't important, right, but soit's a big week preaking this weekend,
Joe, I know, he's gotto save that voice. We'll be back
right after this Muchos. It doesn'tmatter if you love craps, blackjack machines
or dining on the finest Asian,American and Salish cuisines. It doesn't matter

(16:32):
what you do or where you're comingfrom Mucos. What you do is all
at Muckleshoe, an easy drive fromwherever you are. All roads lead to
Muckleshoe. Mucosuit because they come offto turn and run for home. It's

(16:53):
all about the ride. At theinside. Coastal Kid is forcing the issue
from the outside and dirt road red. They square off in the stretch Coastal
Kid now comes to the front.It's all about the ride. Welton still
gaining, here's the line and CoastalKid's gonna put them away by two.
Back here on the Horse Racing NorthwestPodcast. That was Coastal Kid, owned

(17:15):
by Steve and Leitha Harr and trainedby Alex Silva Martinez winning the feature race
on Sunday, and Alex is ourguest here on the Racing Horse Racing Northwest
podcast. Vince and welcome in Alex, Alex, how are you colling me?
Guys, and congratulations on that winon Sunday? Thank you, thank

(17:37):
you. It felt really good,really special. Yeah. And Coastal Kid,
a horse, as Vince was saying, has some history here, yes,
a Steakes winner here in twenty twentyone, the Muckleshoote Tribal Classic.
And Alex, You've worked with thehorse quite a bit in the past while
working for Jeff Mettz, but thisthis is the first year the horses actually

(18:00):
raced with you as a trainer,correct, Yes, this the first year.
You know, very grateful for Stevegiving me the opportunity. He's you
know, we've been through, youknow, back and forth, you know,
we had incidents, and it seemslike this is a year for him,
so hopefully we can keep it rolling. Yeah, you mentioned the other

(18:21):
day that you guys might even thinkabout the first stakes for older horses,
but it sounds like the horse isdoing good. You guys have all kinds
of options with this horse going forward. Yes, we got a lot of
options. You know. After therace we kind of talked about it,
mentioned the stakes. Who knows,you know, he's We'll see where he's
at in a couple of days.He came out good out of the race,
so we'll see where we aim himforwards. But yeah, he's doing

(18:45):
really good. And Alex, telleverybody a little bit about yourself. You
know, how you got started inhorse racing, and how long have you
been at Emil Downs. Geez,it feels like forever now, you know,
I've always lived on a farm Mountainem Clause my home down. But
you know, I got to givebig props to Blaine Wright, which was
actually one of the first trainer thatactually gave me an opportunity to like groom.

(19:08):
You know, he put me outin the spot and but I've been
all over the place actually, Blaine, right, you know, to mention
a few pegasusts for Mike Pwitch DavidMartinez. You know, I've been all
over the place, but yeah,been grooming all over Jeff match was actually
where I found a little bit ofa home, you know. I think

(19:30):
that's where I worked for the longest, maybe five years. And how many
horses are you training now? I'vegot currently fifteen? Wow, that's pretty
good. I mean, that's it'salways kind of is that something you knew
early on that as you're grooming,that you want to be a trainer and
this is what you wanted to doand make a living doing it. You

(19:51):
know, I'm always liked horses,and you know, I just figured,
you know what, I feel likeI'd be a really good trainer. You
know, I've always loved horses.And you know, I gotta give big
props to Debbie and Luis because theywere the actually ones that pushed me to
take that next step, you know, because for the longest time I'd just
be like whatever, you know,I just put it aside, and that'd
be like, no, you know, you're gonna go get your license and

(20:12):
you're gonna start training. You know, Debbie Pierrie, let's say her name,
you know, thanks to thanks tothem too, you know, I
actually took that next step and theygot me to where I am right now.
I'm grateful for them, you know. I know you were interviewed.
We were talking a little bit beforeabout this documentary that the students at Pacific
Lutheran University were doing on emial downs. You were interviewed for that feature that's

(20:34):
going to be premiere tonight. Tellus what that was like and what kind
of questions they asked you. Youknow, a little nervous, you know,
I've never really had a or beeninterviewed like that, but you know,
they's basically just the life of agroup, you know, how it
feels or what what you know,daily life of them. And you know,

(20:56):
Joe picked me, and I thoughtit was you know, I I
stepped right up because I've been there, done that, you know. So
a couple questions that they asked were, you know, how do you take
care of a horse? Or howdo you know when they're feeling off?
And stuff like that. You know, and they usually give you them little
details. You know something's off.Sometimes they don't eat all their feed,

(21:21):
their head are down, and justyou learn to pick up them little details.
You know, every horse is different. I just got to say,
in my little corner of the world, like with the Emerald Racing Club,
I got to know you Alex alittle bit because you were working for Jeff
Metz and you always struck me asnot only knowing the horses extremely well,
but being well spoken, but justyour self confidence I find is just off

(21:44):
the charts. You really believe youcan do this. Yeah, you know,
Like like I said, I've alwayspushed myself and I'm confident within myself,
you know, And it's always beenmy mentality no matter what happens,
you know, even you know,sometimes there's good days, bad days.
You move on, you know.You you know, you just kind of
wash it. If it was abad day, you enjoy it. If

(22:04):
it was a good one, andthen you were a little emotional when Coastal
Kid won. The other days hasa little bit backstory, huh, you
know. He, like I said, we've been through We've been through a
lot. Me and that horse.You know, it's it's my boy.
But you know, ever since atwo year old, we went first time
out, then the next race werun in the Gossy Suturity and he veers.

(22:27):
You know, I remember that.Yeah, so I was pretty emotional
too, because you know, Iremember clearly I was walking towards the winner
circle. I'm like, yeah,I win the race, and next thing
you know, he's on the outside. I was like, dang it,
he did that. Didn't he dothat? A couple of times and races?
How did you get him to stopdoing that? You know, till

(22:48):
this day. Usually my instructions are, the horse will let you know that
when it's time to go, justno left stick, you know, don't
don't pull out the left stick atall. You know it's and believe it
or not. But I forgot totell Carlo that, and I'm kind of
grateful that I mentioned something about itin the morning, so I think he
had it in the back of hismind. That's Carlo Lopez, Yeah,

(23:11):
who wrote him the other day.One of the new jocks here this year.
And alex If This is always atough question to answer, but ultimately,
if there was one race that youcan see yourself winning one day,
what's the ultimate What do you wantto see yourself doing? Where do you
want to be standing in the wintercircle and for what race? You know,
my heart is always here in Washington. So I mean, I've always

(23:33):
dreamed of winning the Long Acres mile. Okay, Well, and you know
I don't want to get ahead ofthe thing here. But we said Coastal
Kid is a six year old inhis prime, and yeah, exactly,
so I'm trying to, you know, lock on wood. But that's the
race we're aiming for. All right, very good. And you said you've
been to a bunch of other racetracks, you know, tell us how

(23:56):
you feel Emerald Downs compared to someof the other places you've been. You
know, Emerald is the nicest placeI've ever been. I've been all over
the place. I've curved, youknow, I've done Golden Gate, been
Santa Anita, Los Almados. Youknow, we've been all over the place.
But there's nothing compares though to hereEmerald Downs, which is home.

(24:18):
You have any horses running this weekend? I do. I got four in
this week, two of them inone race, Cash's Cat and Mongolian Spring,
which are Saturday in the first,and then I got Sunday's Young Life,
Laura and some manas. Okay,now, don't worry, just just
between us, We're not going totell anybody it's not like anybody's listening.

(24:40):
But do you like any of themto win? You know, I think
we got a couple of good shots. Well with who you got to give
names? Here? He gives up, you have to pick one? Come
on, who's confident? I'm reallyconfident and it'll be a coin flip between
Cash's cat, a Mongolian Memory orMongolian Spring. They're both training really nice.

(25:07):
You know Casha's cat, he's beenunlucky. We've had droppers, you
know, dropping class. But youknow he's five to two Morning Line and
I think it's a good It representshim, you know, I think it'll
fit him. You know that MongolianSpring. Don't count them out either,
got it? And oh go ahead? We got young wife Laura as well.

(25:27):
I'm pretty high on her, butshe's in a tough allowance race.
That don't mean nothing. Yeah,I got a credit, Alex. I
think he mentioned he's We got MiguelHernandez appearing this weekend as a trainer.
He's got a couple of Morning Linefavorites in and Alex, you helped get
him up to Emerald Downs, didn'tyou. Yes, he was actually my

(25:49):
neighbor and uh Thur Paradise and uh, you know, we kind of got
close together and he just like,hey, so where are you going to
go after this. I'm like,well, I'm going back home, you
know, which is Emerald. He'slike, you know what, I kind
of want to try that. SoI'm like, hey, why not.
So we just you know, wegot them in contact with the race secretary
and everything, and I you know, as of now he's my neighbor here

(26:10):
too, and he seems to likeit, so I'm kind of I'm happy
for him. It's nice to waitfor the summer, wait till he sees
the summer weather and that mountain outevery day and these big crowds that we
get and so we're just getting startedhere. But hey, thanks for joining
us today. Good luck this weekend. I know I wrote down a couple
of horses. I'll be betting nowright for the tips. But we'll see

(26:33):
out here at the track this weekend. Good luck, all right, Thanks
guys, Thanks Alex. All right, we'll take another break and we'll be
back on the Horse Facing Northwest podcastright after this. It doesn't matter if
you love craps, blackjack machines,or dining on the finest Asian, American

(26:53):
and Salish cuisines. It doesn't matterwhat you do or where you're coming from
Mucos. What you do is allat Muckleshoot, an easy drive from wherever
you are, All roads lead toMuckleshoe Man Mucosue back here on the Horse

(27:17):
Racing Northwest Podcast, Vince Bruin,Phil Zig or Joe Why taking this week
off, saving his voice for theweekend as he was a little under the
weather this week. Gary darerty ArePromotions manager Slash Trifecta King will be joining
us in this segment, and Vince, we need to talk a little bit
first about the Preakness. It's alwayskind of like the poor step child the

(27:42):
Triple Crown races, but the dynamicsof the Triple Crown are changing a little
bit over the next few years,starting actually this year because the Belmont Stakes
will be running Saratoga at a differentdistance, and then after next year this
race a Prectess is going to goto Laurel as they rebuild Pimlico. Yeah,

(28:06):
I'm kind of glad they're rebuilding it. I am a big traditionalist here,
and the one thing the Preakness alwaysdoes have is the Derby winner,
and again this year we talked aboutMystic Dan talking about sitting it out,
But how can you sit it outwhen you got a chance to go for
a triple crown? So I don'tmind the Preakness at all. In fact,

(28:26):
I worked a couple of them whenI was working for Magna back in
the day, and I love Baltimoreand I think they got a great thing
there and it's it's going to bean interesting race. Everyone knows muth came
out. Gary Doherty, our guest, one of the good handicappers around here.
I think the people would like toknow how you see this race?

(28:47):
Well, you know, back inthe day, you guys, I used
to handicap for the Seattle Times andI did many triple can races for the
newspaper, Kentucky Derby's, the Belmont, the Preakness Stakes, and even the
Beers Cup. So this year beingtwenty twenty four and the big scratch is
pretty huge, was myth being takenout? We're down to what seven horses?

(29:10):
I'm a big fan of Brian Hernandezand then this for the game of
horse racing, wouldn't it be neatto see? Uh? To see Brian
Hernandez and Mistic Dan and Cam McPeakgo to New York going for the troll
Crown at Saratoga Saratoga. So I'llbe rooting for Mystic Dan all right.
You know Mystic Dan is getting withmouth out will be favored. But Gary,

(29:33):
you know, trips are a bigthing, and he got the perfect
trip in the Derby. You mentionedBrian Hernandez couldn't have rode a better race,
so of course not nearly as muchtraffic with the smaller field to anticipate
him getting the good trip again,you know he'll probably need it. I
know Brian had watched Calvin Barrell's twoDerby winds up the fence back in the
day, so he took that wayof going. And again you said,

(29:57):
Vince, it was outstanding or hesaved every inchy ground in the race.
And I think he'll be fully pacingplaced in this race. And I'm sure
he'll at some point in the stretchyou'll have the lead, okay, whether
he can punch it in from there. I'm going to try to beat him
with a horse called Tuscan Gold,coming out of a third in the Louisiana

(30:18):
Derby. The horse is only racethree times, handled a mile in three
sixteenth okay, in his first testsuperior connections with Chad Brown and Tyler Gaffileoni.
I see this horse being able tosit right off the pace and we'll
see if he's good enough from there. So I'll take a little shot on
Tuscan Gold. Yeah. And youknow, again, the X factor here

(30:38):
is Bob Baffert, who was nota lot of court cases involved in that,
but he was not able to participatein the Derby with any of his
horses. And he comes into thiswith what would have been two of the
top three or four picks and oneis out. But I think actually that
scratch kind of makes the race easierfor his other horse imagination, who might

(31:02):
wind up on an early uncontested leadin this race. It's a field of
eight now from nine, and that'swho I'm gonna And there's just something about
Bafford and Triple Crown races and havinga little maybe extra incentive. I know,
what does that do for the horse, But he's obviously training for this

(31:22):
race. It's different when you skipthe Derby and your focus is solely on
getting to the Preakness, and that'sa great advantage for somebody like Bob Baffort
to have, and I wouldn't besurprised to see that horse just go wire
to wire. Baffort did do itlast year with National Treasure, who had
kind of a similar resume and imagination, A million dollar son of Into Mischief,

(31:44):
Gary and Frankie who's riding the horsewin Franco Dentre. So that will
be a lot of entertainment if thehorse does win the race, just to
see Frankie's celebration and dismount afterwards.He's never won an American Classic, Now
that was surprising to me. Yeah, he's won all the world, but
not one of the big free herein America. So he has a big
chance, big look this weekend toget that off his list. We were

(32:07):
going to talk some Preakness memories.Yeah, Phil, why don't you go
first? Oh wow, pressures on. I'm going to go back to I
guess childhood showing age here a littlebit, but I think I'm going to
look at a couple of years ofmy earliest memories maybe of horse racing,

(32:27):
of really which made me a fanof the sport, and looking back to
the you know, early seventies andI remember how great reaver Ridge was,
and then of course his stablemate Secretaryat the year after and those two Preaknesses.
And I don't know why, Idon't remember kind of what I had
for dinner last night or half thepeople's names that are run into but for

(32:51):
some reason I remember the nineteen seventytwo Preakness because reaver Ridge was supposed to
be you know, they had thatlong, long drought without a triple Crown
winner, and he was beaten bya horse named B B B. I
didn't even have to look this up, and hopefully my memory is correct,
and I didn't just dream that,right. I'm right, Gary, You're
right, yeah, And reaver Ridgewas such a great horse and came back

(33:12):
to win the Belmont Stakes, andthen the next year Secretariat of course,
and a little controversy in that Preaknessas well in nineteen seventy three because he
again I'm not looking this up soon, going on memory on this, but
there was a controversy with the timeof the Preakness in nineteen seventy three correct,
and that he had broken either thetrack or the world record, and
because of a timing difference in thetracks time compared to everybody else's time.

(33:39):
He didn't get what I think itwas the world record secretariat that he would
have broken. And I don't knowdid they go back later on they finally
corrected that. They did finally correctIt took a long time to correct it
though, ten years ago I think. And and you know, anyone who
could time it off the TV orthe video it could clearly see, you

(34:00):
know, the race was probably thecorrect thing to do. And because the
movie made around the Clubhouse turning thatrace was one for the ages and they
retroactively got it right, I guess. But that was very, very controversial
at the time. And of coursewe're talking the great secretary who followed it
up with the Belmont for the Ages. Gary, what's your memory, Well,

(34:22):
I would have to one, it'sprobably a lot of people's favorite pregnance
that was nineteen eighty nine. Ibelieve Sunday Silence and Easy Gore. That
was they'd run in the Derby andSunday Silence from the West Coast it beat
the East Coast horse Easy Gore.Trainer of Sunday Silence was a Charlie Whittingham.

(34:46):
In the pregnance, I believe Phildidn't Easy Gore try to bite Sunday
Silence. I don't remember that,but I remember the race as well as
far as the rivalry. Yes,in deep stretch the two came to together
and they almost tried to bite oneanother, and Sunday Silence won a dramatic

(35:06):
photo finish. And he then wenton to New York for the try to
win a Trouble Crown and that wasdenied. Yes, he was denied by
what seven to ten links. Butthen at the Old Gulf Stream Park that
November the Classic breeders Chrisk Cup,Classic Sunday Silence I got first run on
Pat Day and Easygore and that wasnineteen eighty nine. That was a special

(35:30):
year of horse racing, and thatwas a fantastic Preakness. You know,
the Prekness has got great history.You know, they got a great infield,
they got live music, they gotgreat bands, all star bands,
and they also have the running ofthe outhouses, right, Vince, have
you seen those videos? Yeah?Well, actually, you know I mentioned
earlier working for Magna I Santa Neitat the time, I would go back

(35:53):
and help with the Preakness every yearbecause they owned Pimlico and in two thousand
and three I ran the new team, and then in two thousand and four
I was the photo marshall and there'stons of photographers and so I watched the
race right in the infield by thefinish line. I was standing with Kurt
Hoover, good friend of mine,and it was sunny out and beautiful,

(36:15):
and we've said we must have donesomething good in life to be standing right
here on the finish line. Andfor the Preakness Stakes that was the day.
Smarty Jones won by thirteen links,got one hundred and eighteen buyer,
but unfortunately maybe emptied the tank alittle bit because he came up a little
bit short in the Belmont. Butafter the race, I got back to

(36:35):
the hotel that night really late.There was a message for me from Chip
Tuttele. They needed someone to goto Philadelphia Park to handle the media request
between the Preakness and the Belmont.So I changed all my travel plans,
went over there and set up shopin Ben Salem, Pennsylvania for a couple
of weeks, and the media crushwas immense. The public workout drew over

(36:55):
ten thousand people. Yeah, itwas really, really a tremendous thing to
to just be, you know,on the front page of everything, and
unfortunately he got beat in the Belmont, came up a little bit short,
finished second, and I remember NickZuto apologizing for winning the race and Edgar
Pratto ye Birdtown or Birdstone, Yeahat fifty to one, ran him down

(37:22):
in deep stretch. But that forme, that was just an unforgettable few
weeks and the whole Smarty Jones ridewas outstanding. Shows what the sport can
be. Yeah, And what doyou guys think about the tradition of the
Triple Crown. There's been a lotof talk about the spacing of the races
and maybe changing that around, andalso the distances now again because of Belmont

(37:45):
being rebuilt and then going to Saratoga, we're seeing a difference to the traditional
distance of the Belmont Stakes. Andof course in twenty twenty during the COVID
year was really strange because the Belmontwas run first that year in the Triple
Crown and the Derby was run Ibelieve last or September, and maybe the

(38:07):
Preakness came after, I don't remember. But what about tradition, what about
the fact that people want to keepthings the same, or is change good.
Well, I'm I hate to beware, I'm both. I understand
things evolve and change, and certainlythe thorough Thoroughbred breed has in many ways

(38:27):
over the years. That's said,I think we have some issues in racing,
but I don't think the Triple Crownhas been one of them. I
think the popularity is still good.Maybe the spacing is a little difficult for
especially for the Preakness where you onlygot two weeks to come back. Nowadays
most sources usually want at least three. But me, I'm fine with it
is right now. What about you, Gary? What do you think about

(38:50):
especially with the Belmont running at amile and a quarter this year instead of
a mile and a half. Doesthat bother you? Well? I think
it would have back in the day. But the game is and lots of
changes recently. Now Belmont will havea new racetrack in twenty twenty five,
and Phil, you've been to Belmontmore and I is it going to be
a mile racetrack? A mile onthe quarter? Do we know how big

(39:13):
the dirt track is going to beat Belmont Park? I thought, Now,
I'm not sure. I thought thatthe main track was still going to
be a mile and a half.The mile and a half I thought,
and that they were adding a allweather surface track. They're adding a toepedo.
Yeah, I I just assume Ihaven't thought about it. I just
assumed it was gonna still be themile and a half. That's I mean,
that's the only biggest track in thecountry. I'll be a mile and

(39:35):
a half. You know, Ican see pros and cons of changing.
Obviously, if you had the threeraces every six weeks, you would probably
get more horses in the from theKentucky Derby to run the Preakness. Pretty
much now it's it's the winner ifhe wants to go, and there's a
lot of pressure on the winner.Kenny Mack the Peak, I'm sure once

(39:58):
he won the Kentucky Derby sees Igot a week to ten days to see
if I'm going to go. Everyonewants me to go. But this day
and age, horses don't fire backin fourteen days and three more weeks to
the Belmont Stakes, So I wouldprobably be inclined of stretching out a little
bit. You know, back inthe day, horses used to run every

(40:19):
two three weeks a month, andyou would see the star horses, you
know, every month, but nowadayswith the horses not running that much during
the year, you don't see thembut every five, six weeks, even
two months. But if you hadmore horses come out of the Kentucky Derby
and run in the Preakness, Ithink that would be the best thing.
So maybe you know, a longerbreak between the two would be would be

(40:43):
the best. And it is truethere isn't nearly as many mile and a
quarter and mile three sixties, certainlynot mile and a half races as of
yesteryear, so the breed has changeda lot in that way, So maybe
your point is as well taken there. Yes, I think I know,
like we've been talking, the gameis changing, and the Derby in the

(41:06):
first of May, then you'd havesix weeks of the Preakness and the Belmont,
which will be brand new in twentytwenty five, six weeks later.
I think fans are used to horsesnow running every six weeks, so long
wanted to go three and three,You don't want to go six and six,
oh six weeks and six weeks.Really, that's that's dramatic. That's
not gonna happen. That would stretchit out almost a third of the over
a third of the year, maybea month. I mean, I mean

(41:30):
these horses, they don't run asmuch as they used to do. Right
now, two weeks, three weeks, it seems to be a little close
because you had to Chad Brown,who ran second Serira Leone. How cool
would it be to see him backwith Mystic Dan, you know, in
a rematch, and since he canprobably wait for the Belmont in three he'll

(41:52):
be coming back in five weeks.It puts a lot of pressure on miss
Big Dan to run two weeks laterand face a hot horse in the Baffert
Born and then come back in threeweeks and see a rested Serial Leone.
Well, people think tradition of theTriple Crown, but if you look back
to the early beginnings of the TripleCrown, before people even perceived that this

(42:13):
was the three race set that wasthe Triple Crown. But there were times
when there were a horse. Ifyou look at the Triple Crown winners from
the early days, you'll see thatthey won races in between these races.
Right to show us Gary's point howmuch the game has changed. You know,
you'd see Derby another race Creakedness,Brooklyn Handicap and something else, and

(42:37):
then the Belmont. I mean theyused to run them way more often and
it wasn't the same kind of mindsetof these are just the three races that
we're going to go for. Yeah. The heartening thing to me was we
saw the ratings were outstanding, thehighest in you know, like what over
twenty years. Yeah, television forthat for the Derby and another record handle.

(43:01):
I know, business here certainly wasgood. So the public still loves
the Kentucky Derby. Yeah, it'sthe most exciting two minutes in sports,
and it seems to be growing inpopularity. If that was even possible,
maybe because we had a few TripleCrown winners in there and people are paying
attention, maybe more so again therest of the year. I don't know

(43:24):
that it's really changed that much,but certainly during the Triple Crown and having
it on a major network like NBChelps they just renew it, I think
for a bunch more years as well. Yeah, and one hundred and fifty
six thousand people for attendance is prettyamazing and I handle them over three hundred
million dollars. I've never been toa Derby, and I'm not so sure

(43:45):
that's on my bucket list. Idon't think so. It's one of those
things I wanted to do at leastonce. It's going to be the longest
day you ever spend and going tobe exhausted, but it's it's it's a
piece of Americana everyone should experience,kind of like the Indy five hundred.
I'm not a big auto racing fan, but I'd love to go there at
least once to do that, youknow, just it's one of those events

(44:06):
that I, you know, Ithink everyone should see once. Have you
been to a Derby? Gary?You do all this bucket lift list stuff.
You go to these concerts and flyout of town and derby. Yeah,
nineteen eighty seven Kentucky Derby. AliShiba won the Kentucky Derby and it
was about ninety five degrees and wewere in suit and ties, a whole
nine yards set in the first turn. I was in my twenties and like

(44:30):
what Vince said, it's part ofAmericano. And that day they only had
nine or ten races. You canbelieve that now days you have fourteen.
But these these races have been goingon for over one hundred years. They
just recon tradition and people. Theseare huge events, and I've been fortunate
to go to the eighty five hundredsame thing. This the overwhelming amount of

(44:53):
people and the people who come backevery year for fifty sixty years, it's
something that's so the USA. Youknow, you mentioned Belmont and growing up
in New York. What was reallyunique about the Belmont Stakes is it was
pretty much one of the handful ofraces where you could see the start of

(45:15):
the race if you were in thegrandstand because they went around two turns.
Even a mile and a sixteenth raceat Belmont is one turn right, and
there were no big screens when Iwas growing up until just recent times.
What's remarkable about horse racing and theexperience about going is what don't you see
at Emerald Downs or a lot oftracks anymore? These days you don't see

(45:36):
people with binoculars. But back inthe day they used to rent binoculars to
the fans to show up at thetrack because you couldn't see the race without
them. They were a long wayaway from you in a mile and a
half track, starting out in ashoot that was even further away to try
to to see the horses until ifyou didn't have binoculars, you had to

(45:58):
wait until they were just about ontop of and you know, speaking of
the Belmont. If I'm ever downand the feeling depressed or a little whatever,
I go to YouTube and put onthe seventy three Belmont and defy anyone
to watch that not feel a littlebit better. When the Secretary's coming down
to do any podcasts, turn yourcell phone on, turn the cell phone
off, but just the whole calland the crowd you can see it and

(46:20):
all that. It just brings outgoosebumps every time. Fifty years later,
fifty one years later, Yeah,it's a special experience and it's going to
be pretty special. It's Saratoga.I mean for the folks that are looking
forward to, I don't know howmany people going to show up, because
normally people go to Saratoga in thesummer, and it's where you go in
the summer, right, And thatis distinctly different too, because growing up,

(46:42):
Saratoga wasn't what it was now.In fact, they had even talked
about closing it down at one point. It was just four weeks in August,
and it was seen this kind ofa pain of the neck for people
to go out there. Now it'sthe resort town. Everyone goes. Hotels
are outrageously expensive, so it'll beinteresting to see, like with this little
any meat for the Belmont Steaks,how they do. It's interesting because for

(47:02):
many years Delmar was a distant thirdin San Neia, behind behind Santa Anita
in Hollywood Park. And now that's, you know, the destination place for
racing, and those those weeks wereSaratoga and Delmar overlap. That's a great
time in racing every year. Yeah, and Saratoga run I think three or
four days, I think, yeah, And it's sold out for the Belmont

(47:23):
Steaks and they're going to do againnext year, is that correct? Correct?
Yeah, a couple of rebuilt butnow that Phil that will be very
interesting to see the whole atmosphere.Let's hope they get some good weather because
that can go either way that timeof year. Back there, So Gary,
we haven't even talked about promotions,which is what we really brought you
on to talk about. You handlearranging all the stuff that goes on here

(47:47):
and these special events and all thesedog race days and keeps you pretty busy.
We have Family Fun Weekend this weekend. But tell us about some of
the great promotions coming up. Yeah, starting this week, We've got our
first Family Fun weekend and I've beentold Sundays should be real nice and we'll
have a bunch of bounce houses,face painters in the park as it's going

(48:08):
to be nice out on Sunday,maybe on Saturday. To check our websites.
Also pony rides this weekend, andthen the following weekend we'll have a
big giveaway for the Great Outdoors Prizedrawings where you can win a tent or
a barbecue. We'll have a bunchof gifts to give away both Saturday and
Sunday. Then we get end ofMay. On the first Fab Friday is

(48:31):
May thirty. First you can comeup, excuse me and get your T
shirt. That's Friday, May thirty, first Fab Friday. Wear a T
shirt back every Friday you get infor free. Is that what all those
boxes are out in the whole Yes, lots of boxes, lots of boxes.
So we'll be giving away those Tshirts on that Friday. The next
weekend we'll be doing something first timeever at a racetrack. We'll be having

(48:52):
a teacher appreciation weekend, and somebodyhere in this room has decided to have
a teachers race on that Sunday.That wasn't my idea, No, no,
somebody suggested that. I said,well, of course, of course
we have to let the teachers race. Of course, so the teachers who
come out, they can come downto the Winter Circle before a race and

(49:13):
we'll jog you onto the race wreckand you can kind of jog, walk,
hustle, whatever you want to do, and you'll run about one hundred
yards. So any teachers that wantto come out for a day of racing,
you get in for free, Youget a program, you get eight
nine thoroughbred races, and then youcan bet on your favorite teacher to win
the teachers race. So that's Juneone and two. The following weekend is

(49:37):
the Belmont Steaks from Saratoga, andthe following day, Sunday, the ninth
of June, is our first dograce, the bulldog races, which we
have probably seventy to eighty dogs havesigned up. French dogs and English bulldogs
in phil What are what are faster? The English or the French? I
believe the French are. So we'regonna separate. We're gonna have two champions

(50:00):
races. Give the English Bulldogs theirtheir own little championship. They're kind of
more fun to look at though whenthey're running, I think they're a little
bit slower. Always a lot offun. And then the weekend after that
is one of our biggest events ofthe year. You know, phil events
is kind of getting bigger and biggerevery year, and that would be the
Muco Shot Mucleshoot Gold Cup Relay,the Indian Relay Races. Sunday is a

(50:24):
championship and that's on June sixteenth.We'll start at Friday, the fourteenth and
fifteenth have qualifying races. Then wehave a ten thousand dollars championship race on
that Sunday. We got teams allover the West, the Northwest, even
back east, about sixteen teams thatcome out. Twenty one team, twenty

(50:45):
one teams this year. It's upfrom eighteen. We got twenty one teams.
And you know, they just dida special on sixty minutes on Indian
relay racing as a sport and someof the teams, some of those teams
that were in that feature will behere. And this is they call this
the did you know this? Theycall this the Big Show. The name,

(51:05):
the nickname of this race amongst theteams is the Big Show because we
are the only major racetrack in thecountry that also hosts an Indian relay event
and we run them in between thethoroughbred races. We have the relay three
relay races each day on Friday andSaturday, and of course on Sunday the
two consolations in the Championship. Andif you don't know what we're talking about,

(51:29):
just go to YouTube and search forit. It is. It's amazing
the skill and precision of these teams. It's our format. They ride four
different horses a half a mile andthe rider has to jump off a horse
onto another horse at the exchanges andit is some wild action that goes on

(51:53):
and incredible to see. And someof those horses, as you know vins,
are ex racehorses here that find theirsecond career in Indian relay. That's
going to be an amazing weekend toget and by the way, no,
that's also our first stakes weekend,the sixteenth. That was sixteenth, fifteenth

(52:16):
and sixteenth, right, yeah,because we got the three year old Phillies
and the Seattle Stakes that's the firststakes of the meet on the Saturday,
the fifteenth, and Sunday the sixteenth, Auburn Stakes for three o'colds and gilding.
So Indian Relay racing Friday, Saturday, Sunday stakes races on Saturday and
Sunday, and I believe we havea Father's Day of course on that Sunday

(52:37):
too. Sunday is Father's Day,so we're expecting a really big crowd and
for folks coming out on those bigrace days. One thing that we've added
this year, it's really a greatbenefit to you, is you can now
purchase a preferred parking spot in advanceon our website, on our ticketing site,
so you will have a parking spotguaranteed when you get here. A

(53:00):
lot of folks have asked that,and even on the third of July,
you can go on and right nowand buy your parking spot and it will
be here when you get here,in lot number three, which is just
north of the grand stand. Yeah, and I said, we've been getting
bigger, bigger crowds every year forthe Indian Relay and it's been on national
TV. So looking forward to thatbig events A few other big items this

(53:22):
summer. The Fireworks Spectacular will beon July third, first race five o'clock.
Tickets are on sale. You canalso get VIP tickets which gets you
a front row seat for the fireworksafter the horse racing Irish Days on Saturday
the thirteenth of July, and oneof the bigger events, the Corgi World
Championship Races, will be the followingday, Sunday, July fourteenth. We

(53:45):
had almost three hundred Corgis enter theraces. Phil Yeah, and we're gonna
have a random drawing for all thosespots. See who the lucky dogs that
get to participate. It will beon ESPN two as part of the ESPN
O Show once again the year forthe fourth consecutive year. It's sponsored by
Amazon. Yes, Amazon on behalfof the Alzheim's Association. They are raising

(54:07):
money. You can go to theirsite as well, and if you have
a Corgi they are still they havesome spots available. It was featured on
Seattle Refine and you can see iton Just Again. Search for it and
you'll find it. But you cando some fundraising and actually raise money for
the All Time's Association and get yourdog into the race. So that is

(54:30):
a great little extra benefit. You'vementioned Amazon. Do you know I'm going
to do a little jump a littlething here, but Amazon Prime next year
all Seattle Kracking games. I knowAmazon Prime members, which I am one,
So that's awesome. Yes, justthis in the local market. So
if you're outside of the Seattle marketshere that are in the territory of the

(54:52):
krack and it won't work. Butif you're in this market listening, yeah,
if you're a kracking fan, thatis great. I think it's a
very smart move to give you know, a lot of people great access well
to their product. A lot ofpeople just didn't have root and the route
they went to the premiere that's herehere. Yeah, and that might be

(55:15):
why the Mariners are drawing more fansthis year too, because they're not people
aren't seeing as many of the gameson TV. I don't know, because
they're doing pretty well. They're doingwell in the standings. Yeah too.
Well, let's hit into August realquick. Here. We have a new
event, the ice Cream Festival,which should be on Saturday and Sunday,
August third and fourth. Come onout, get some great ice cream in

(55:37):
the Park. We'll have the familyFun weekend with twenty rides once again,
face painters, some big bounce housesin the park and the weather should beautiful
those two days. On the fourthof Sunday will be the Kids Race.
You can bring out the kids andthey can run on the racetrack. That's
turned on to be a great event. We have a drone that will videotape
the race. We'll put it onour website. Lots of fun events for

(56:00):
the kids there on that first weekendin August. Other big items in August.
The t Rex World Championship Races areSaturday, August seventeenth. Make sure
to make this event. You caneven be in the race, right Phil,
Just come dresses a t Rex,just be a dinosaur and you can
run. The more the merrier.We're gonna let everybody that comes dressed up,

(56:22):
and if you're not even dressed up, will sell you a costume at
the gift shop and you can goout and be a dinosaur and run in
what has been obviously over the pastfew years, our most number one viewed
video and videos on all social mediaplatforms. People love the t Rex races
and we have the biggest and thebest t Rex race in the world right

(56:46):
here at Emeraldald's. Absolutely, it'sreally taken off. We have some of
the college kids that dress up andthey run quite fast and a t Rex
costumes. Grandfather's Race, Oh youforgot the grandfather the Grandparents Weekend. That
was a hit last that was ahit. Yeah, in more ways than
one. When they hit the ground. We will do it again. Then

(57:07):
this year will make you sign awaiver. Yeah, yeah, so you're
gonna have it. We'll look forwardto that event too. Are returning the
two guys that fell last year areboth going to be from what I hear,
coming back for redemption? Is thatright there? Yeah? Trying to
finish the course this year. Isaid, I asked Lass, who worked
for our track starting a crew,because he was in the race last year

(57:27):
and he was the guy that lookedlike he basically he pulled the hamstring.
He actually did pull a hamsdrnk onwin. Yeah, he went for one.
I said, what are you goingto do this year? And he
says, oh, he goes,I'm going to win this thing this year.
So a couple more events of note. August twenty fifth, the traditional
winner Dog and want to be racesSunday, August twenty fifth, about six

(57:51):
weeks out. We'll put something onour website if you want to enter your
winter dog, your small dog andcome out and race that's been going back
to the late nineties. Italian Daywill be Sunday, September first, and
we have the Peace Eating Contest thatday, and we have one more new
event for this year September seventh andeighth, Saturday Sunday. We have some

(58:12):
called Octoberfests Emeraldowns with their first octoberfestsin the park area. Lots of live
music and all kinds of good beerand Octoberfests I did not know this are
typically in September, which doesn't makeany sense, but apparently that's a thing,
and we can't do it in Octoberbecause our season ended September, right,
we don't have racing fivteenth. Yeah, well, Gary, that'll keep
you busy for the rest of theyear for sure. And you can buy

(58:36):
tickets for all of these race daysat emeraldowns dot com. All race days
are on sale and again preferred parking, grand stand seats, box seats.
We have two new loft suites onthe fifth floor that are just awesome if
you have a group of up totwenty people, And of course are suites
up on the sixth floor for corporateevents or just family gatherings or special celebrations.

(59:00):
It is a fun way to spendtime with your loved ones or friends
and I will say this or coworkers, which you know, we talked
about this earlier. Compared to othersports, when you come out and do
an event like that here at EmeraldDowns, not only are our prices a
little bit better, but where elsecan you go where they're handing you money

(59:20):
at the end of the day foryour winning. No tickets, because you're
gonna win money, right well,not everybody wins, but you have a
chance. And that's the added elementof coming to the track. The excitement
and the fun and the food andthe camaraderie, there's nothing like it.
So if you give us a callif you're interested in one of those suites,
we'll even give you a tour ofthat area if you come on in
and spend the day here at EmeraldDowns. But you can also just buy

(59:44):
two regular old general admission tickets andjust come out and hang out on track
level. Absolutely so we have acouple of big birthdays. I wanted to
mention, Yes, so a coupleare really prominent ones, right, Well,
the first one would be on laston Monday, popular Hall of Fame

(01:00:04):
trainer Howard Belvoir turned the big eightoh eighty and his whole family I saw
on Facebook. I saw the picturesto see that his family, I guess
surprised him and flew into tea,did not know they were coming. Yeah,
that's amazing. So he turns eighty. I saw him out there on
I think Saturday. I was goingout to take a couple of pictures from

(01:00:25):
the other viewpoint, you know,around the courtpol and he was sitting out
at a picnic table, oh byhimself out there, and I'm like,
what are you doing out here?And he was just relaxing in the sunshine,
looking at the racing form. Lookedvery peaceful there. So happy birthday
Howard. And Ron Crockett, whois the founder of Emerald Downs, the

(01:00:47):
president of Emerald Downs for a longtime and still a big part of our
operation here at Emerald Downs and helpsout with lots of things with legislative efforts
and pr and at tens events.And Ron, I know he won't mind
me saying this because he was prettyproud of it. He turned eighty five,
and he's in better shape than I'lljust put all of us in,

(01:01:10):
all three of us combine, he'sin better shape than any of us,
and all of us. He's ingreat shape for eighty five and still very
active and just went to New Yorkto watch his granddaughter in a play.
Yeah, so it's always nice.You know, Ron and I have a
little old tradition. Did you knowabout this, Gary? About my tradition
with Ron what we do on openingDay? You guys visit the paddock every

(01:01:35):
year since I got here. Myfirst year was twenty fifteen. Ron and
I take a picture together and Wanda, his wife, takes the picture for
us in the paddock together. Andthis year he was out of town for
opening Day, so we did iton Sunday this past Sunday for his birthday.
On his birthday, So I havepictures for all ten of the years

(01:01:58):
and I'm going to get that printedout, framed and put in my office
and stuff. It's a nice littletradition. And Ron has been incredible as
just somebody who has taken our staff, anybody from our staff that needs assistance
with anything. Ron is always hereto help. He's a whiz with the
finances of the game. And he'salso a pretty good handicapper, picked some

(01:02:19):
good horses, awesome handicapper, andof course he's helped out in Olympia.
Yeah, and many other things.Still, as you say, very very
active. Yeah, very much so. Trivia. Joe gave me you guys
do trivia here at the end ofthis podcast. You know, I listened
to the podcast, but I don'talways make it to the end of the

(01:02:39):
podcast. Some of the questions showscome up with are esoteric. I'm gonna
ask good, I'm gonna see Now, Gary probably hasn't heard this because nobody
got this right, apparently, Gary. Okay, prior to Lonesome Boy this
year at Parks, who's the previousmost recent Washington bred three year old?

(01:03:01):
Could turk gelding to win a Steaksrace other than in Washington at Oregon?
That sounds like race conditions of arace that we have around here. What
kind of question if you can understandthat? All? Okay, so you
got the gist of it right,Yeah, I would have guessed bajas or
a three year old winning a Steaks. Yeah, three year old old or

(01:03:22):
gelding to win a steaks race outsideof Washington and Oregon before a lonesome boy
did it this year. M I'llgive you a how about how about a
horse upbout Canada Hastings. No,nope, it was done in twenty twenty.
Okay, that's pretty soon. Andthis horse is the title of a

(01:03:46):
book. A book? Aha?What uh? We're on a blank?
What race track? What racetrack?Turf Paradise, Oh, turf Paradise.
It's probably the whol around here haswritten a book on the in the past
couple of years. Oh, usedto coach Seattle Pacific. Oh, I

(01:04:11):
know who it is. It's BigSwag, Yes, swag Stational. Yeah,
and that's what he named his book. Yeah that's right. Yeah,
yeah, Sorry, Keith, weshould have remembered that, I know,
the Paradise Derby and twenty twenty andthen shipped over and ran in a steak
of sant Anita. I believe theSan Felipe that year. Nobody got that

(01:04:31):
right. So nobody wins the bigprize of a dinner with Joe with you?
What is the prize? I don'teven know is there? Well,
he's got swag we just it's usuallya hat or a sure or something good.
Yeah, and he's got a lotof stuff in his workspace area you're
talking, Well, we kind ofhave messy death areas some days. I'm

(01:04:55):
trying to get you guys make themfunk. I'll say, Joe's is very
functional. He knows where everything isthere. So yeah, But poor Rihanna,
who works next to him, washer territory was getting infringed upon there
for a while. It's like,okay, lesson, less space for her,
and even Joe looked at and said, yeah, I gotta do something
about this. But you two canhave like a little runoff. One who

(01:05:16):
has the clogged area, yeah thanthe other one. One last item before
we go dancing at the Downs isback live music. June first, we
have a Leonard Skinner tribute band afterracing on Saturday, the June one,
from seven to ten, and thefifth floor four weeks later, a Sammy
Hagar tribute June twenty ninth, andMile Weekend, which is August eleven,

(01:05:43):
the night before the tenth, we'llhave a country music band playing all the
hits from the eighties and nineties onthe fifth floor from seven to ten.
PM. That's a good idea.Yeah, you invent you work some of
those you like that those nights itis hanging out. And the one thing
the feedback I get, you know, being a selling the tickets or whatever

(01:06:04):
is gosh, this is great.There's nowhere else for our age group to
go in the valley here for youknow, classic rock or whatever and dancing
and all that. So yeah,it's twenty one and over to get in,
and we generally don't have to wellI mean security IDs people, but
you don't need to be doing much. We'd have more of a challenge iding
for a senior discount because but wedo get We got a great crowd that

(01:06:28):
comes in. I would say mostof the people probably in their forties,
right at least, yeah, forties, fifties, maybe higher, I don't
know. I'll tell you what though. It's a great venue for it.
It is, and it's a safeplace to come and dance, and of
course a lot of the music thatwe have goes back to the era in
which that group of folks. There'slots of other places for those twenty year
olds to go, but we haveone of the few places that really cater

(01:06:49):
to folks that are let's just saythirty five. I get questions like at
the karaoke place, when are youguys going to have the thing again?
I was happy to say June first. Really, yeah, my sister enjoys
it. Her and her friends likecoming out for it. And yeah,
the gary I don't know if youget the bands are always pretty good.
I mean, these are some talentedcover bands, and I like that they

(01:07:12):
usually have a theme. There's arolling stones or are you still going to
the same tarioki place? So haveyou changed? You know, we've gone
to a different one. Now youwant to give them the shameless plug.
Come on. It's called Kim's Teraiokiup in Kent, right across from the
baseball field there, and it's it'sreally good, okay, and Vince,
let me tell you something like Vinceknows his terioki, right, I do,

(01:07:33):
yes, Yeah, So if he'syeah, it's good, do you
still get extra chicken or extra beef? I usually get the extra chicken?
Yeah, and it's well done.They see me walk in and the guy
throws it on. He knows whatI want. Really yeah, it's kind
of we take care of him.On the other end, everybody knows your
name. Yeah, so it's funnyduring COVID the place I used to go

(01:07:58):
that the owner actually call. Hedidn't know my name and he called,
you know, I worked here insecurity. Finally passed through a call and
he's asked where you've been. Ithought you had died because you haven't come
out. So I'm glad to hearyou guys are back open during COVID.
Can he give you like a giftcard one time for his own place or
something? He did? Yeah,very loyal customer you are. I mean,

(01:08:21):
how many times a week are youat this camp? About one and
a half okay, yeah, someweeks two, some weeks one, some
weeks none. All right. Ilive in Kent, so I am going
to try that out and every yearlistening. Still listen late in the podcast,
make sure to go to Lost Margarita'shere in Auburn. They're one of
our big sponsors. We have theTrainer of the Week sponsored by Lost Margarita's

(01:08:43):
here in Auburn, So drop onby you have Emerald downs to shout out
and have a good dinner there LostMargaritas. I am a Lost Margaritas fan
as well, and don't forget theMuckleshoot Casino Resort in Auburn with their brand
new hotel. I got to hada peek at the suites. Oh oh
my nice. You can live thereand be very happy with the bedrooms.

(01:09:10):
Even the regular rooms are spacious,and they got these great new and many
these big TVs. Really nice.And they have a steakhouse. It's up
on the top floor that has agreat view of Mount Rainier and I know
they were setting it up when Iwas there, but during the nicer weather
they're gonna have tables like outside whereyou can sit outside on kind of their
patio on the roof and have thatgreat view and enjoy a great dinner.

(01:09:33):
So Muckleshoot Casino dot com for allthe information on all the stuff. They
got so much stuff going on,concerts and comedians and all the gaming and
the restaurants in the hotel. Itis. It's amazing. I worked there
years ago and there's nothing like thatanymore. It's really grown up. So

(01:09:53):
a lot of fun to go there. Gary. You like going to the
casino, right, I've been Nongoonce in a while. Any other plugs
we want to put, We're prettyThis is like the plug segment of the
podcast, we've just invented this newwell we got to mention, of course,
the quarter shoot is always a quartersWednesday through Sunday. Yeah, and
they open early in the morning atseven until two pm, except on race

(01:10:15):
days when they open longer. Andgreat food there and you get to sit
there and watch the horses for training, kind of walk by. Great atmosphere.
One of the very popular breakfast spotsin Auburn. You know, they
have good lunch and dinner when theyhave dinner during those hours. But the
best breakfast in town is what thesign says, and they do. Yes,

(01:10:39):
all right, well we are justabout done here. Did we miss
Joe? Yes, of course,right, just reiterate he's fine, that
he's fine. He will be outhere on Saturday at his normal post on
set with John. By the way, Joe and John are great together.
They are great during the card.You want some good insights on racing and
Emerald downs. I have it onin the background while I'm working and I

(01:11:02):
pick up stuff. Yeah, hepicked a fourteen to one shot jow withy
did and Tom Harris is now alwayshe's back handicapping and always is good for
a long shot. Or too andthe trifecta. King Gary Daugherty has his
trifect to pick each and every raceday, and occasionally you lean on John

(01:11:24):
Linley for advice on who you're gonnapick as well. So, uh,
that's always a good method because Ithink you won like three or four of
them last year where John kind ofwas partners with you on your selections.
Right, yeah, John, Johnwatches races. I mean he watches his
replays, he's got trip notes,he's all in. I'm out making sure

(01:11:45):
there's no fall starts in the Coryraces. I got other things to do.
So didn't you have a win lastweekend? I had one try one
triffect he had a three, Sooff to very Gary. It paid for
a dollar, paid thirty two dollarsand the investment was around fourteen. All
right, that's not bad doing.Okay, we'll give it a whirl this
weekend and on fab Friday nights you'regonna do your pick live during the races,

(01:12:10):
and if you win, there's gonnabe some special drink specials. Right
absolutely, these are adult beverages twodollars beers. If they try fifty King
Hits on a Friday night starting onMay thirty. First, I think if
you have one race with a shortfield, you just box all of them so
everybody can get two dollars beers.Well I shouldn't be saying that, right,

(01:12:30):
And the Horseshoe Pitch will be backon Friday. We love the horseshoe
Toss. No one's won eons,but maybe this year. No Gary hit
a Ringer as the guest tosser onetime. Oh years ago, yeah,
not that long ago. Yeah,anyway, all right, we are wrapping
up here on the Horse Facing Northwestpodcast. We got off on some tangents
there, get some nice plugs out, but Joe is fine. He'll be

(01:12:53):
back on the next podcast next week. And we hope to see you out
at Emerald Downs this weekend for HamaFund. You Dain mhm