Equine Seniors Ready To Run In Rocking Chair

A horse once owned by singer Frank Sinatra and a pair of former stakes standouts will be among the starters Saturday when the Rocking Chair Handicap returns to Playfair Race Course after an absence of one year.

The Rocking Chair, styled for horses 8 years of age and older, will have its 20th running at the Playfair Course distance of about 6-1/2 furlongs, offering a purse of $3,500. The seven scheduled starters have won more than 100 races for collective earnings almost $200,000.

With only two weeks remaining in its 59th season, Playfair will race today at 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 and Monday at 3. Today, there is a $20,735 twin trifecta carryover. The three-month season, projected to include 49 days, will end Thanksgiving weekend.

Former sprint champion A Gamble and 11-year-old gray Snowy Mountain Sam, victorious in the 1987 All West Derby, are the most-accomplished entrants.

A Gamble, owned by Playfair president Stan Horton’s Horton Farms, captured the Turbulator Handicap in 1991 and 1992 and ruled as the track’s top sprinter in 1992. Snowy Mountain owns 19 victories, three of them this year. He has earnings of more than $76,000.

Bolsure, which recorded his maiden triumph at Santa Anita almost a decade ago, tuned up with an easy front-running score in a 4-furlong race on Monday.

Challenging Knight, a Washington-bred once owned in partnership by Sinatra, is a superior mudder with 19 career wins and earnings of $71,000-plus.

Im Freeze Dried, Katjun and Sunrise Peace also were entered. Sunrise Peace will be making the 103rd start of his career.

Five wins

Frost Gothe Peach, a bargain claim for owner-trainer Verlon Hobdey of Lewiston, became the first horse to win five times this season when he rolled to a front-running victory in last Friday’s sixth race. Claimed for $2,500 on Sept. 8, Frost Go The Peach has earned more than $6,000 for his new owner. The Washington-bred 4-year-old is 6 for 9 lifetime at Playfair.

Hot hand

Robert Munoz has been the hottest rider on the grounds for the past two weeks, piling up 13 victories in the last nine race days.

The native of Guatemala, a winner of 17 races in 1992, his only previous Spokane campaign, has overcome an 0-for-18 start to move into fifth place. He is 26-for-170, an excellent 14.7 percent.

Notes

Veteran trainer Jerry Bosequette, who saddled Toughy’s Gold for his victory in the colts and geldings division of the All West Futurity, is confined to Valley General Hospital with pneumonia. … Perry Winters, who began riding here last weekend, was the jockey leader for the fall meet at Stampede Park in Calgary. … Former Playfair training champion Francis Peery is recuperating in Yakima from recent open-heart surgery. … Monday’s last-race trifecta payoff of $1,842.40 for $1 was the largest of the season… . Chris Martin, who piloted Super Ciel in the Spokane Derby, has packed his tack and headed for Turf Paradise after receiving a one-week suspension from the stewards.

, DataTimes