Track Announcer Calls It Quits, Even Before Meet Begins

With the start of the racing season more than three months away, management at Playfair Race Course has time to fill a key vacancy.

Announcer Tom Harris is no longer associated with the Spokane track.

Track announcer at Playfair from 1989-92 and in ‘97 - the last time thoroughbreds ran here - Harris left in mid-May to become director of racing in Great Falls, Mont.

Harris returned last fall, just before Lilac City Racing Association received its license to operate Playfair. He was director of administration and was to resume his role as announcer, Playfair general manager Ross Yearout said Thursday.

Yearout declined further comment.

Harris said Thursday he would also withhold comment, other than to say he wasn’t fired.

“I wasn’t an employee,” he said. “I was a consultant. I have a company (Harris Media Services). Apparently they felt they didn’t need that service.”

Harris said he was “disappointed but not surprised, and awfully glad to be back here.”

He worked in Great Falls in ‘93 and ‘94.

Racing on the half-mile track at Great Falls is a Saturday-Sunday proposition from June 17 through Aug. 5. The longest stretch is four straight days over the July 4 holiday.

The season in Billings, Mont., opens after that. Harris will work that meeting as well.

“There are reasons for the move, but I’m going to keep them personal,” Harris said. “I wish the horsemen at Playfair the best. I hope they have a good meet. I’ll go about my interests and watch them go about theirs, and see how everybody does.”

Yearout said Playfair is looking at resumes and will review tapes in the first stages of selecting a new announcer. It’s an important post at a track that hopes to develop markets nationwide through simulcast wagering.

The season - 43 evenings of racing - opens on Sept. 16.

Playfair remains open for simulcast wagering and training. About 75 horses were on the grounds as of Thursday, director of racing Ted Martin said.

Yearout will appear before the Washington Horse Racing Commission Wednesday at the Sea-Tac Marriott to follow up on the explanation of the security agreement with the track’s investors. The commission ordered Playfair to address securities questions by June 1.

“We turned in the material they requested (on Wednesday),” Yearout said. “I feel comfortable that we’ve provided the information they asked for.”