Sen. West Tells Racing Group He’s Not The Enemy Lawmaker Holds Out Hope For Change As Whrc Meets To Review 1995 Dates

The co-chairman of a horsemen’s organization that is lobbying for an acceptable racing season in Spokane criticized State Sen. Jim West on Saturday.

On Monday, West fired back.

West was criticized for failing to support legislation backed by the East Side horsemen’s group, the Organization for the Preservation of Horse Racing in the Northwest (OPHRN).

A non-voting member of the Washington Horse Racing Commission, West, R-Spokane, said Inland Northwest horse people are “frustrated and I don’t blame them.”

But he said OPHRN co-chairman Jay Healy is wrong in identifying him as the enemy.

Spokane-area thoroughbred owners and trainers are trying to extend a scheduled 1995 season that restricts them to 50 days of racing from Sept. 6 through Nov. 27 at Playfair Race Course. Typical late-November weather could further curtail the meet. Last year, Playfair was able to race 73 of its 79 allotted dates.

The racing commission meets today in Yakima to review ‘95 seasons.

West said there still is a possibility that Spokane horsemen can get what they want - three days a week at Playfair in August, two of them with statewide wagering. Horsemen have informally asked the commission to approve the August dates.

But West took exception to the comment by OPHRN co-chairman Healy in Sunday’s editions that West is “not a friend of this side of the state.”

“They’ve been dumped upon by the racing commission for years,” West said. “They have reason to be frustrated. But they’re not seeing what we’re trying to do here (in Olympia).”

West said the horsemen’s group made mistakes in the last three months.

“They hired the wrong lobbyist twice,” he said. “They fired the first one and hired a guy whose philosophy is to do as much damage as you can and pick up the pieces later. You can’t work that way here.”

West said he refused to support legislation that would have deferred sales tax for Ron Crockett in his attempt to build a track in Auburn.

He said he supported a bill that extended improvements in the horsemen’s purse structure at the summer meet in Yakima, operated by King County-based Emerald Racing Association.

West also said he refused to sign on to a bill that would have allowed existing tracks to carry full cards from other racing facilities.

“You do that and Spokane becomes a satellite shop (with no on-site racing),” he said. “A track wouldn’t have the overhead of the horses. There’s more money in just being (an off-track betting shop).”

That’s debatable. The effect of fullcarding in Washington State is an unknown. Many area racing people argue that full-card satellite wagering could in fact attract the customer who wants to bet top tracks nationally - the customer who now has that option at The Greyhound Park in Post Falls.

Idaho is among the many states that permits full-card satellite wagering.

Combining on-site racing with full race cards from other tracks could give Playfair and its horsemen an attractive package.

As for his position on the other legislation, West said, “Ron Crockett is the only guy putting up money to save the state’s horse racing industry. They (OPHRN) were shopping an amendment to stop the (Auburn) track. That’s when Don Strate quit.”

Strate, a Davenport businessman and horse owner, resigned two weeks ago as a spokesman for the horsemen’s group.

Strate said Monday he resigned over a concern that, by attacking legislation in the Senate and the House, OPHRN was hurting its chance to negotiate for more warmweather racing days with statewide betting in Spokane.

“When our committee decided - and it wasn’t unanimous - that they wanted to attack legislation that would throw support to the new track, I didn’t feel that was in the best interests of the racing industry, or in the best interests of Eastern Washington,” Strate said.

“How can you attack and negotiate? Offend and negotiate? That was my concern.”

“The horsemen in Spokane make a good case (for racing in August),” West said. “I told them that in December. There has to be a solution.

“But trying to shout over the Cascades from Spokane won’t work.”