25 years later: Playfair Race Course is long gone, but memories, records and a few treasures remain

Surely, it’s a shame that the most visible remnant of Spokane’s century of thoroughbred horse racing is a weather-beaten fire hydrant, dark red paint flaking on its sides.

If you’re relatively new to the area – more relatively than new – who’s to know that Playfair Race Course closed its doors forever almost exactly a quarter century ago. Imagine what you have missed.

In 1901, horses first circled the oval track that fronted a broad-shouldered grandstand at Altamont Street and Main Avenue, not much more than a mile east of downtown. The last race, run under miserable conditions, was run on Dec. 17, 2000. The grandstand, built of sturdy oak beams, was demolished in 2004.

Today, the property has been redeveloped as Playfair Commerce Park. Signage connects the land to its heritage because the owner, developer Larry Stone, relishes its history. The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture houses a few modest artifacts. But the hydrant is the real deal, having squatted before the grandstand from Playfair’s opening day until the last beam fell.

The Spokane Interstate Fair succeeded the area’s first commercial racing venture, a modest fairground on North Side land that became Corbin Park. By 1901, the fast-growing young city wanted a first-class fair and built one on a V-shaped 63 acre-lot left when tracks laid by two railroads crossed one other at the western edge.

The region’s foremost architect, Kirtland Cutter, designed the stands. There was seating for maybe three thousand with standing room for hundreds more. Twin cupola decorated the roof. A two-story, open-air officials stand stood at the finish line, inside the track’s inner rail. The hydrant stood nearby.

The fairs, scheduled around Labor Day, lasted a week or so, supplementing their exhibits with races and other entertainments.

With betting handled by bookmakers, many states decided to ban racetrack wagering years before they ratified Prohibition. So, across the country, county fairs provided most of the action. For owners, trainers, jockeys, support people and the animals, racing was a traveling circus, complete with legendary humans and memorable equine prodigies.

Considering the size of our market, the racing wasn’t too bad.

Jockeys developed record-setting careers. Trainers who started with fragile stock sometimes gained national or regional prominence. The best horses gained wide reputations. Local folks owned several of the top stables. Some bred their own horses. A few produced children whose accomplishments overshadowed their own.

It’s believed that Albert Johnson, a teenager from rural Milan, rode in his first professional race during the 1916 fair. Within a decade, he piloted two Kentucky Derby winners and two winners of the Belmont Stakes. He’s a member of the National Racing Hall of Fame.

Around 1932, Yakima Valley resident Ruth Parton, most sources agree, became the nation’s first licensed female trainer. County fairs weren’t too strict, So by then, she’d been campaigning racehorses for years and had sent out a mare named Cyclonic to win three straight renewals of the Spokane Derby, which was not restricted to 3-year-olds – common at the time. The Spokane Derby became recognized as the oldest thoroughbred stakes race in the West.

Early in Playfair history, Parton tied for two training titles.

Fearing consequences from the year-old Great Depression, the Interstate Fair closed after its 1930 run. Soon, however, states that had banned racing but were now eager to share the proceeds and took it up again.

In Washington, Longacres, located south of downtown Seattle, opened in 1933, thanks to a well-prepared team headed by real estate tycoon Joe Gottstein and Bill Edris, who developed the Olympic Hotel. Spokane needed more time. But Irving Hildrebrand, a racing official from the old days, organized a group headed by automobile dealers Guy and Dee Reigel. So it was that on Friday, Aug. 30, 1935, an estimated 3,000 spectators saw Playfair Race Track launch a 16-day season.

During 61 years of operation, Playfair attendance would total several million. Horses of astonishing consequence raced. Jockeys, usually a mixture of regional stars, rode. Top trainers saddled winners.

Bill Robertson, who had ridden the first Longacres Mile winner, steered Choice Caller to a three-length victory in the opening-day feature. He became the first leading jockey. Choice Caller won the Spokane Derby.

Two days later, 15-year-old Basil James rode his first official winner. The next year, he led the nation. The year after that, Johnny Adams led the Longacres and Playfair standings and he went on to a national title. He won six more before following Johnson into the Hall of Fame.

Every year wasn’t star-studded, but there were plenty of highlights.

The first best horse was Joey, a well-traveled 9-year-old Canadian gelding, who won the 1939 Spokane Derby. Joey retired with 40 wins and $35,378 to his credit. That may not seem like much. But converted to 2025 dollars, it‘s $814,948.

The most notable horses in Playfair history were Lighted Way, Collaborator and Turbulator. Each won a Playfair Mile. Each accomplished quite a bit more.

Lighted Way, a stretch-running chestnut with distinctive facial markings, won a record eight postwar local stakes races and placed in just as many.

In early 1958, Seattle insurance tycoon George C. Newell bought Collaborator, who had been an erratic 2-year-old. Under the care of trainer Leighton Dorsett, Collaborator turned in a series of breathtaking victories, often in record time under high weight. He beat fellow 3-year-olds in the Longacres Derby, defeated older horses in the Longacres Mile and set records while repeating both feats in Spokane.

Turbulator – bred, owned and trained by Tom Crawford in the Spokane Valley – did not race until 1969, when he was four. “Tubby,” as he was known, took Playfair by storm, using explosive rallies to win all seven of his starts, three in important stakes races.

In 1970, he swept Horse of the Meeting honors at all three Washington tracks. In Seattle, he broke a world record and won three stakes. He might have taken the Longacres Mile, but a broken stirrup left jockey Larry Pierce hanging on for dear life. In the most famous defeat in state racing history, they still finished fifth.

Durable rivalries lasted into the 1970s. Ruler’s Whirl and Tall Ben challenged Turbulator. Tall Ben’s stablemate, Matinee Girl, Candie Mia and ‘60s star Smogy Dew may have been the top mares in Playfair’s first 40 years.

During this period, the high-quality competition generated larger crowds. Increased wagering led to major improvements and additional purse money, which, in turn, attracted better stables, more name-brand riders and longer, well-attended race meets. And there was a new name: Playfair Race Course.

The late 70s launched the Black Mackee era.

M.L. “Mose” McDonald, whose name had never appeared on the list of leading trainers, struck gold in 1978, when he turned loose a colt named Black Mackee. The handsome 2-year-old blazed his way to stakes wins at Yakima Meadows and Longacres then routed his rivals in the Spokane Futurity and Juvenile Mile.

Although Black Mackee’s racing career ended in 1980, he was an immediate success in the breeding shed. His offspring stood out during this decade and helped it also become a filly and mare era.

Miss Mackee launched her 25-win career. Mary Mackee earned $69,000. Guy Mackee won the 1987 Spokane Futurity. Payday Mackee earned $214,668 and Mackee Baby joined talented female ranks that included Proud Rosie, Just Like Mama, Patty Duke, Katie Kould and Brief Grief.

Brief Grief began her career in Spokane, won multiple stakes races and had banked $184,691 before she suffered a fatal injury.

This era’s other male standout was Chan’s Dragon, named after his owner’s local restaurant. He won the Spokane Derby and two editions of the Playfair Mile. Picking up even larger checks in Seattle allowed him to retire with earnings of $215,995.

As the 1990s loomed, Candoe Mia’s son, Captain Condo, swamped all Playfair predecessors when it came to cash flow. The late-blooming, roan-colored gelding scored his maiden victory here in 1985 and 10 more over the years. But, as a senior citizen, he was a giant at Longacres, where he won 25 times in 39 starts, winning four of his stakes races as a 9-year-old. Inflation would more than double his career earnings of $511,695 to $1,181,589.

Playfair, of course, had some persistent jockey standouts, a few of whom rode exclusively on what used to be a Northwest circuit.

Paul Frey and Lennie Knowles, dating from the 1950s to the ‘70s, rode record numbers of winners here and in Seattle. And each took a shot at the national title. Vic Bovine had dominated while winning a pair of early 1950s titles. Gilbert (Bud) Simonis, Jerry Taketa and Jerry Pruitt each led three times and nearly filled the list between Bovine and Scott Bergsrud, a three-time titlist who was banned for his part in a 1994 gambling scheme. Gary Baze, who dominated Seattle racing for a quarter century, got his start here in 1971.

All-time leader Akifumi Kato (Aki, the jockey), a native of Japan, rode at least 1,104 Playfair winners. He earned two titles, came close to several and may have won a few more races that can’t be traced. Runner-up Terry Motschenbacher, first or second five times, won 1,038.

Quite a few trainers won multiple Playfair titles. Spokane native A.J. (Dutch) Branenburg shared second place with six winners in 1949, Almost three decades later, he led the standings three years in a row to go with his five titles at Portland Meadows.

Twins Roy and Troy Taylor dueled H.R. (Hump) Roberts for supremacy into the 1960s, when another regional standout, N.E. (Nub) Norton, took over. Norton launched a run of four titles in 1965.

Following Norton and Branenburg, sons of top trainers dominated the charts for most of the next two decades. Each has surpassed his father when it comes to career wins and dollars.

The youth movement began when Spokane’s Ron Glatt, in his early 20s, took up training. By 1976, he tied veteran Walt Tarter for first place. The next year, he saddled a record four winners on opening day and finished with 48, another record.

Glatt became a Longacres regular and trained for a quarter century, winning almost 700 races. Then he turned the barn over to his son. Mark Glatt’s charges in Southern California annually earn about $4 million, more than his dad collected during his entire career.

Richard Wright won multiple riding championships at Playfair and Portland Meadows before he turned to training. Starting around 1970, he saddled 963 winners, some of them Spokane stakes races. After turning the horses over to his son Blaine in 2009, the wins kept coming. Blaine became a force at Emerald Downs, which succeeded Longacres, and ranks third all-time among Emerald’s stakes winners.

Tom Roberts was a third-generation trainer whose grandfather and father won Playfair races. Tom first appeared in the 1977 standings, shuttling horses from Longacres to the winner’s circle and back. The next year, he had 74 winners.  Before he retired, he had led trainers at Longacres and Hollywood Park.

Tim McCanna’s dad, Dan, won two Playfair titles and trained here for four-plus decades. His son, encouraged by Roberts, used his strategy, welcoming West Side horses looking for a win. Starting in 1982, Tim led the standings four years in a row and became the first dominant trainer at Emerald Downs. Based in California, he’s headed for his 2,600th win.

During the late 1980s, increasingly long seasons began to take their toll. The 1980 meet began June 4 with 72 days of racing. Three years later, there were 98 days. For the rest of the decade, there were at least 100, beginning in the spring. With supply exceeding demand, attendance and revenue began to fall.

Throughout the industry, casino and sports gambling chipped away at the customer base. That, in turn, sent the breeding industry into a tailspin.

Auto dealer and real estate investor Jack Pring, the track’s owner and operator since 1981, no longer wanted to run it.

Various groups, usually involving industry people, took turns leasing it. But, by then, the landscape had changed. If uncertain financing wasn’t bad enough, shrinkage continued. Favorable access to the satellite that handles nationwide wagering, and finding outlets to receive the signal had become a priority.

In 1996, atter three disappointing years, Playfair had no racing for the first time since 1943. Managers hired by the Muckleshoot Tribe, which now owns Emerald Downs, reopened the track and put on separate spring and summer meets. But the tribe lost interest when the state racing commission declined to grant it its own license.

On-site customers everywhere were becoming scarce. Satellite access, of course, catered to major tracks and their on-line bettors. Smaller tracks had to scramble for leftovers.

Finally, after going through 1998 and 1999 without racing, a determined nonprofit group put together a 43-day meet for 2000. The satellite service offered only late fall dates and a slim, unattractive schedule. The season began on Sept. 16 and ran through mid-December. There would be racing on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and a few Saturdays, starting at 4:50 p.m.

Opening night in swell weather drew a bang-up crowd of about 6,000 fans. But there was a shortage of riders, and the weather got worse. Daily average wagering for the whole meet and from all sources, was well below management’s expectations.

To their credit, the professionals made it to the finish line. Former Playfair champions, including McCanna, Kim Wright and Bruce Wagar, provided a lot of support. Deer Park’s Mel White edged McCanna for the training title.

But it had been a harsh fall.

Wright and her husband, Dale, who had a long career as a jockey, were on hand for the final day. With the temperature near freezing, she saddled Sunshine Scholar to win the final Playfair Mile.

“We’d been here for some cold winters. but that felt colder,” Dale Wright recalled. “It was so cold it never dried out. And it was a terrible track. It was so cold that the track stayed sloppy.”

Nationwide, negative trends seem to have continued. On-site crowds usually amount to hundreds or dozens. Gambling options continue to expand, particularly on professional and college team sports.

The tracks? Yakima Meadows, Portland Meadows, Les Bois Park, Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Field and Playfair … all closed.

But the fireplug’s still here – just no longer there. It found a new home in a South Hill garden, where it’s being watched over by another Playfair fixture. 

And yes, I used to be there, too.

Jim Price, a retired reporter and copy editor at The Spokesman-Review, spent 14 years as Playfair’s track announcer and publicist.