Playfair Left At Post By Interim Rail State Pulls Track’s Dates, Citing Safety Concerns Two Days Before Opening Day

Citing a unanimous concern for the safety of riders and horses, the Washington Horse Racing Commission rescinded race dates in Spokane on Wednesday, effectively canceling Friday’s scheduled season opener at Playfair Race Course.

The best-case scenario is that a temporary inside safety rail installed Wednesday - and promptly criticized as flimsy - can be upgraded to meet what industry inspectors called minimum safety standards.

If so, horses could be up and running within two weeks.

The worst-case scenario is that the scope of the job is too much for now and the season will be canceled, taking with it the jobs and the hopes of what remains of the Eastern Washington horse racing industry.

“In two weeks, there’ll be four horses on the grounds,” Playfair general manger Kim Rich protested.

“This was a blow to the heart,” said Spokane thoroughbred owner and trainer Jay Healy, a founder of the Organization to Preserve Horse Racing in the Northwest.

The state’s order came out of an emergency meeting at Playfair chaired by commissioner Jim Seabeck of Spokane. Commissioners Barbara Shinpoch and Bob Plut were linked to the proceedings by conference call.

After hearing Jockeys’ Guild representative Gary Baze and presiding steward Bob Lightfoot, among others, testify that the rail wasn’t sturdy enough to prevent injury, commissioners agreed to rescind racing dates.

Testimony was debated by Rich Fontana, who supervised installation of the interim rail.

Fontana, considered the industry expert on safety rails, was asked why his company’s permanent rail didn’t go up, as he had promised at earlier commission meetings.

A mistake, not of his making, he said, was committed in laying the base for Playfair’s new racing surface. Gravel was used instead of clay-based material that would allow posts to be set in concrete.

“This would work, so no one would suffer, but now everyone is going to suffer,” Fontana said. “There’s no reason why this rail shouldn’t be accepted in the interim. I said the (permanent) rail would be up by Nov. 22, but I made that statement in October, thinking they (commissioners) were going to grant you people the dates then, which they didn’t.

“I was called on Nov. 17,” Fontana added, “saying the rail had to be in by the 23rd, in the worst snow you’ve had in how many years? You can’t pull material off when snow’s comin’ down and put new material in because it’s going to get wet.

“You want to know how long it’s going to take? I can’t answer that. I put St. George, Utah, up in six days, a mile track. But it’s like baking a cake. You can’t put the frosting on until you get the two layers under it.”

Citing the potential and liability for injury, Seabeck cast what he indicated was a reluctant vote with the majority to rescind the dates.

“What you said in your letters and what was approved is not this rail,” Seabeck said, addressing Fontana.

Director of racing Ted Martin said only two tracks in the state, Emerald Downs and Yakima Meadows, have better rails than “this one here. The others have far worse rails.”

But Baze, who retired as the state’s career leader in riding wins last year to become the regional representative for the Jockeys’ Guild, withheld his support.

“The riders are happy with the track surface,” Baze said. “These jocks here are hungry. They want to ride, no matter what. They’ve been galloping horses around cones. They’re willing to ride over pretty much anything that’s out there.

“I’m not going to say I’m not going to let ‘em ride. But what I am going to say is that I can’t sanction this rail. it doesn’t meet our safety standards.

“Mr. Fontana has said he can do some things to tighten it up, but at this point, plainly to me, it doesn’t look sturdy enough. I’ve run into ‘em and I’m not comfortable with it.”

In wording the motion to rescind dates, Shinpoch said, “Mr. Fontana did not deliver the rail that he described to the commission and to Playfair management. It is the commission’s responsibility to ensure the safety of that racetrack and we can’t do it given the information that we have now.”

, DataTimes