Horsemen Upbeat After Making Case

Inland Northwest horsemen spent Tuesday in front of the Washington Horse Racing Commission, selling their latest proposal to re-open Playfair Race Course.

By the time the commissioners went into executive session to deliberate the future at Playfair, many horsemen left the daylong session at the Ag Trade Center daring to believe their commitment will finally pay off.

“I think we’ll be OK this time,” said Fred Hepton, one of 20 Spokane area horsemen who are investors in Lilac City Racing, Inc., the group that is seeking a license from the state to run horses at Playfair from late August through November.

If approved, the proposed 43 days of racing would be the first on-site season in Spokane in nearly two years.

If approved, Lilac City hopes to resume full-card simulcast wagering before and after the live meet at the state’s oldest race track.

Although their bid for a license was far from a done deal by quitting time Tuesday, owners and trainers were quietly expressing belief that the questions raised by the commission’s staff, and objections from rival racing associations, would either be resolved or overridden.

The commission’s decision will come in writing, possibly before the end of the week.

The hearing was cordial by past standards of commission dealings with Playfair, when the denial of license applications by the Muckleshoot Tribe seemed predetermined to many Inland Northwest horsemen.

The Muckleshoot lease the track from Spokane businessman Jack Pring. As the leaseholder, the Tribe would be Lilac City’s landlord.

By stepping aside for the time being, by subleasing the track to the horsemen’s group, the Muckleshoot may have removed the biggest hurdle to restoring operations at Playfair.

The track has been closed to simulcast wagering since last August, after the commission denied the Muckleshoot Tribal Racing Corporation’s most recent license application.

The sublease came under scrutiny as the state’s attorney and commission consultant Ralph Johnson pressed for clarification of who’s responsible for what at Playfair. The track is in disrepair, commission staff testified, and investment is required to bring it back to “basic minimal standards.”

The horsemen’s financing was also questioned, particularly how a $500,000 line of credit from Idaho Independent Bank to principal investor Leonard Hammrich of Hayden Lake would be triggered, should Lilac City need the money to complete its season.

The lack of a “go-to” investor to bail out the group if business fails was also raised by commission staff.

Hanging over the Spokane application is the fallout from the collapse of last fall’s season at Yakima Meadows. That meet was aborted after only 10 days. Left in its wake is an $800,000 debt, commission chairperson Barbara Shinpoch of Tukwila said.

Lilac City’s financial projections are probably too high, Johnson testified.

Loans from investors range from $5,000 to $75,000, with investors to be repaid by Dec. 31, at 7 percent interest. Exemptions required in capitalizing a non-profit corporation in such a way may not conform with federal or state securities law, Johnson said.

But Lilac City spokesman Ross Yearout, attorney James Montgomery and their consultants addressed the concerns, although some issues will come down to damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you don’t.

Dick Monahan of Walla Walla, who is involved in the management of fair meets in Walla Walla, Waitsburg and Dayton, says having Playfair run in August and September means overlapping race dates with the smaller tracks that could kill lower-level race meetings in late summer.

But local horsemen who have held on to their stock for the last two years in hopes of racing closer to home, say that if anybody deserves a break, they do.

They ran a winter meeting in 1997, followed by a fall meet that year, followed by nothing.

The problems of horse shortages and declining business at the betting windows are best addressed by promoting horse ownership, said J.C. Marshall, a Coeur d’Alene horseman who spoke during the public testimony phase of the meeting.

“More owners, more horses, more horses, more fans,” Marshall said. “We want to be involved with our horses - watch them work out in the morning, talk with the grooms, walk the backstretch, pet the horses, feed them carrots.”

Marshall said he has two horses at Emerald Downs, for him a 700-mile round-trip drive. He says he gets a call before they run, and another after they compete.

“That’s not fun,” he said. “That’s not being involved. Absentee ownership doesn’t work.”

Support for Lilac City’s bid came from a new source, the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Ralph Vacca, general manager of the WTBA - who opposed the Muckleshoot Tribe’s bid for a license to conduct racing at Playfair - said Yearout has answered his concerns over distribution of breeders cash awards.

“The state can’t go through another Yakima,” said Jerry Woods, president of the breeders association. “It’s important (for Lilac City) to show financial viability. If you (the commission) find them financially viable, grant it (their request).”

By racing in the evenings on Sundays, Mondays and one other night a week, Lilac City officers say they’ll soften the impact of overlapping seasons with Emerald Downs, which is currently running a spring and summer season that will end on Sept. 20.

Forty-three racing dates over 95 calendar days starting on Aug. 22 are proposed.

Emerald Downs controller Dick Carogel said any overlap will hurt the Auburn track, citing the stretched horse population, expense of staying open late to handle Playfair’s signal as an off-track betting site and added competition for the horseplayer’s wagering dollar.