A special meeting of the Washington Horse Racing Commission on Monday to address a request from Emerald Downs to drop four Fridays of racing in August devolved into frustrated cross-talk, personal verbal attacks, and complaints from horsepeople about how the racing office puts together cards and how management markets the product at the last remaining commercial track in the Pacific Northwest.
But as the 90-minute meeting began to get overly repetitive and heated, an impassioned plea for unity and optimism from the track's well-respected 87-year-old founder Ron Crockett quelled much of the chaos and allowed commission members to unanimously approve the dates reduction.
Emerald had opened its 51-date season in May with only Saturday and Sunday racing before adding Fridays, as scheduled, after Memorial Day.
But Emerald's president Phil Ziegler told commissioners and an anxious, testy crowd of about 50 horsepeople that the Thoroughbred population has not been able to support the addition of that third weekly day of racing.
“I was told at the beginning of the season that filling three days a week of racing was going to be difficult to maybe impossible,” Ziegler said. “And I said, 'Well, we have to try, give it our best shot to do this.' And we tried.”
Ziegler said this coming Friday's card was a tipping point. Even though Emerald is only scheduled to race two days over the Independence Day holiday weekend, the July 3 program had to be cobbled together in a “struggle” by the racing office long after the scheduled close of entries. It managed to make only eight races, three of which went with just five entrants.
“Everybody knows that we've struggled to fill races and cards this season,” Ziegler said. “There's been a couple of occasions where, I believe, if this was almost any other track, we would have already lost three or four days. But we didn't. We hang in there. We have crowds that come here. We have events. So sometimes we'll put on those six- or seven-race cards with five or six horses because we kind of have to. That's what we're up against.”
Ziegler continued, backing up his plan with a yearly comparison to the same 21-dates span in 2025.
“Handle's down 15% from last year. Horse count is down 32%. We have 692 horses versus 915 [and] starters are down 21%. Total starters are 997 versus 1,259,” Ziegler said.
“Our average field size is 6.19 compared to 7.32. That is a shocking thing. But this is the most shocking number: Last year, this time, we had 15 races that went with [as few as] five horses. This year, 56. And a lot of those aren't four-horse fields. They're fours and a couple of threes,” Ziegler said.
“We're not proposing any reduction of races or racing opportunities,” Ziegler said. “What we're proposing to do is taking the six races and seven races from Friday night and moving them to Saturday and Sunday.”
Ziegler said it will be the racing office's intent to go with 11 or even 12 races a day, “if we can get them.” He explained they will try to put the shortest fields early in each card, so that the later races can offer more attractive wagering opportunities when more simulcast eyeballs are projected to be on the product and playing horizontal bets.
Ziegler underscored repeatedly that the meet's total outlay of purse money will not change.
But even a cutback to two-date weeks in August won't help the next few three-date weekends, Ziegler cautioned.
“Honestly, I'm worried about July. I don't know how we're going to keep this going with our horse population through [July], but we're going to try our best to do it,” Ziegler said.
A number of trainers and owners spoke up against the plan. The prevailing sentiment was a preference to instead card extra racing dates over several September weekends after the track's current projected closing date on Labor Day.
That logic was rooted in concerns about the overall erosion of racing days. Several trainers expressed a fear that Emerald would soon dip down below 40 dates per year, which they said would make it unprofitable to be based there for a season.
But that wasn't all that was on the worried minds of the Emerald backstretchers.
For nearly an hour, they sparred with Ziegler over everything from post times, the choice of days of the week that the track runs, the types of races in the condition book, racing office protocols, the wagering menu, increased expenses related to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the national decline of the foal crop, Emerald's disadvantageous, island-like geographic location, and its need for a turf course.
Kay Cooper, a trainer, framed her argument for not cutting dates against an equine safety backdrop, noting how quickly some horses are being asked to run back to fill races.
“[Cutting Fridays in August] also takes a race or two away from certain horses that do not get to run enough. And so it's not so much how many races per day. It's the timing that you can run the horse back safely, so we don't have the injuries and we can keep that population going for the future next year,” Cooper said.
Trainer Candy Cryderman said there was also an issue of trust.
“I've been around this industry for a really, really long time,” she said. “And I know that we're not the only ones struggling. Everybody, everywhere, it's small fields and cutting back on things.
“I will tell you, and I speak for myself, and maybe others, one of the biggest perceptions that we have is there have been many times through the years that we have lost a day for this or a day for that,” Cryderman said. “[And] we're hearing you say that if you take these 28 races away from us, that you will make them up. [And] certainly everybody in this room wants to believe it. But from our past experience, [we know] it doesn't always happen that way.”
Crockett, who had listened to the back-and-forth arguments while sitting silently in the front row of the meeting room, rose to speak only after a commissioner invited him to share his thoughts.
“This room is hurting,” Crockett said. “Thirty-four years ago, when [Longacres] closed, the whole aim was to save all these jobs, keep these 62 farms going, [and to help] all the families that did this for a living.
“[Since then], I got old. I'm [now] not so much involved with racing. But I'm not done yet on helping you people,” Crockett said.
Crockett conceded that the Emerald backstretch community was making some valid points with their criticisms. But he also said some horsepeople were letting petty gripes get in the way of the bigger picture.
Crockett encouraged them to stop bickering about things like post times and wagering menu details and implored them to stay unified and positive.
Although the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe has owned Emerald for the past 12 years since Crockett and his other original partners sold out, he is still actively involved as an Emerald-based horse owner, and he works as a consultant on behalf of the track with regard to legislative issues.
Crockett then divulged one such initiative that he hadn't made public before: He recently met with the governor to discuss ways to help racing in Washington, and he has a July 14 meeting scheduled with a number of elected officials and state planners to try and come up with a better future for Emerald.
“I'm 'talking out of school,' but this room needs something positive,” Crockett said, adding humorously that it was okay for him to leak news about his planned meeting with state officials, because, as he put it, “This old man can get away with it.”
Crockett then said his initial meeting with the governor “gave him confidence” that things might soon be different for Washington racing, although he did not get into specifics.
“It's not gonna be [a cutback to] 40 days next year because of [dropping four Fridays],” Crockett said. “Let's get positive. I've spent 34 years generally on your behalf. Whether you feel it or not, it just happens to be the truth. I care about this.
“I'll tell you what: If they're ever gonna knock the goddamn place down with a wrecking ball, I hope I'm dead,” Crockett said. “I'm not gonna witness it, for Christ's sake. I'm not gonna show up and watch them knock it down. Trust that [the four-date cutback] is the right thing here. It's just three or four weeks in our lifetime….
“I feel your hurt. I do. Honest to god, I do,” Crockett said. “In my lifetime, at the peak, I owned 75 horses, so I know the horse field pretty goddamn well. You're hurting financially, and I get it. And you need something. You need a boost. And you've got some people in your corner that will work somehow on this federal or state thing to take away the hurt.
“That's what you've got, honestly.” Crockett said.
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