Triumphant Return Playfair’S First Race Card In 3 Years Draws 6,000

own bed at night… . The crowd tonight was unbelievable.”

Inland Northwest horsemen waited three years for this.

They weren’t about to disappoint themselves, or the more than 6,000 who showed up for opening night of the first horse racing season in Spokane since 1997.

On a typically gorgeous late summer night, the show at Playfair Race Course started and ended with local connections scoring big - Si Si Grande going wire-to-wire for owner Leonard Hammrich of Hayden Lake in the first, and Gus N Gil closing hard between horses to win at 17-1 for Spokane owner/trainer Bruce Wagar in the eighth.

But the biggest stir came from Deer Park trainer Mel White, his daughter Tammy White and Spokane jockey Lane Rennaker. They teamed up with front-running Slew Design - a 10-1 morning line longshot - to win the $5,000 Inaugural Handicap by a nose over hard-charging Emerald Downs shipper El Bon.

The huge crowd taxed the venerable racing facility to the max. Lines were long. The public address system crackled and failed in places, including the Turf Club.

Announcer Gary Henson came down with the flu, but toughed out the night. Daily Racing Forms were sold out early. The racing program lagged behind schedule as the starter stalled for time to allow horse players to get their bets down - yet some were shut out at the windows.

But Lilac City general manager Ross Yearout was all smiles as the huge and mostly patient crowd headed for the jammed parking lot after wagering $135,668 on Playfair’s eight races.

White’s horses came out fit and ready to run all night. Slew Design had run into brutal fractions in a $12,500 conditioned claiming race last month at Santa Rosa, beaten by only 6-1/2 lengths.

“With that in his form cycle,” White said, “we thought we’d be tough here.”

They were, after Rennaker got on the gas early, made the lead and got the 4-year-old to relax. He got the right head-bob at the wire to hold off Tim McCanna’s El Bon.

“That’s the only way we had a shot,” said White, who also beat even-money favorite Sunshine Scholar, who finished third. “He won’t come from off it.”

After running the tough California fair circuit, Slew Design was entered against quarterhorses at Kalispell to sharpen his speed. He ran a close second, beaten by a nose in a 950-yard sprint on Aug. 27.

There he had trouble making the turns on the tight half-mile track. The experience helped.

He had no troubles on the turns of the wider five-furlong Playfair course.

“We took him over there to get him an education,” White said.

Is there another race for Slew Design here before the projected Dec. 17 closing day?

“We hope so or otherwise he’ll be headed for California again,” said White, who trains the 4-year-old gelding for owner Preston Boyd of Nespelem. “This horse was a never-win three (eligible to run against non-winners of three races). Now I guess we’ve ruined that.”

White was smiling as he was greeted by railbirds on his way up the track to his barn.

“It feels really good to be back here,” he said. “They needed more people to service the (fans) on the front side. That was the only bad part of the night.”

Rennaker said he wasn’t sure he had the race.

“That horse (El Bon) went by me so fast at the end,” said Rennaker who also won the sixth race on Jack Lindsey’s Party At The Bar. “I was glad to see my number up when I galloped back after the race. It was just going to the front and trying to save as much as you could until the end.”

Rennaker and Slew Design wore down 3-year-old Follow That Road in an early speed duel, opened up and just held.

“It feels good to be back here, running in Spokane,” Rennaker said, “sleeping in my own bed at night.” He spent part of the summer riding on the California fair circuit.

“The crowd tonight was unbelievable,” he said. “It reminded me of Santa Rosa. We had crowds just like it. We didn’t do very well down there but we learned a lot, and got the horses pretty fit.”

Rennaker was one of only 10 jockeys available Saturday night. Veteran Lino Burgos was listed in the program on a couple of mounts but has yet to show. Gallyn Mitchell, leading rider at Emerald downs, took Burgos’ assigned mount in the second.

Ron Bilodeau got Burgos’ ride in the feature, on Follow That Road.