Day at races brings bittersweet moments

Soundings

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published September 20, 2008

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A summer in the Puget Sound region just isn't complete for me without at least one trip to Emerald Downs, the state's premier horse racing track.

And since one sojourn to the Auburn oval is the norm in recent years, I've opted for the Washington Cup more often than not.

That's the Sunday in mid-September when the top-performing Washington-bred thoroughbreds show their stuff in seven feature races, each with a purse of $50,000.

The crowds aren't suffocating, the betting lines aren't long and the quality of racing for those three hours is collectively as good as it gets in this neck of the woods.

Last Sunday, a beautiful ­sunny day with Mount Rainier as a sharply detailed backdrop, was no exception. The action on the track was highlighted by 2008 Longacres Mile champion Wasserman, a 6-year-old crowd favorite, using his trademark closing kick to run down Hired Hand by a neck in the 1-and-1/16th-mile seventh race.

In many respects, Wasserman's flair for dramatic late charges reminds me of Turbulator, a 1970s fixture at Longacres and perhaps the most-popular racehorse in state history.

In the 1970s, I knew the horses that raced at Longacres in Renton fairly well -- their bloodlines, their performance records, which ones were peaking and which ones were on the decline. I even wrote a horse racing column for my first newspaper, The Pierce County Herald in Puyallup. I'd drive north up state Route 167 through the largely undeveloped lands of the Green River Valley and take in the Friday night or weekend races a dozen times or more each summer, never missing the premier race of the year -- the Longacres Mile.

I grew up around breeders, trainers, owners and race horses, connected to the industry by friends and colleagues of my father, a veterinarian who placed a few bets in his day. He reminded me this week about the time 35 or more years ago when Humphrey "Hump" Roberts and his wife, Belle, highly respected figures in the state thoroughbred industry, were dinner guests at our home. The ninth race on the card Sunday was the $50,000 Belle Roberts Stakes for fillies and mares 3 years and older.