Many of my friends no how big of a Horse Racing fan I am and how much I love going to the track. Like many I miss the bygone era of the golden age of Horse Racing in the 70’s with Secretariat, Seattle Slew and the Affirmed and Alydar battle. There was ABC’s Wide World of Sports and Jim McKay leading the coverage of those important milestones of racing. Other horses grabbed the attention of the nation during this time including Foolish Pleasure, Bold Forbes and Spectacular Bid.

Secretariat like many first caught my attention as an 8-year-old. My parents had just discovered the races as well and began regular visits to Longacres and then trips to Portland on Friday nights during the fall and winter. It all started for me when my Mom and Grandma took me to Longacres for the 1st time at the age of 9 the summer of 1974. You were supposed to be 10 to get in and my Mom told me if they ask your age say you’re 10. I was tall and my birthday was only a few months away anyway but sneaking into forbidden territory was also part of the fun.

The 1st race was coming up and I was looking at the names and Red Tag Special stuck out to me. Some guy named Gary Baze was riding and this guy named Howard Belvoir was the trainer but decided not to pull the trigger. Apparently I thought the Baze-Belvoir combination had little chance of success so I didn’t bet 2 of the $8 I had brought with me to wager. Well Red Tag Special ran 2nd and paid $3.40 to show so I thought well I need to get in on this, that’s a lot of candy I could buy in 1974.

The 2nd race was next and full field of 12 were set to go 6-furlongs. I didn’t know what a claiming race was but it was a $1,600 claiming price for 3-year-olds and up. My mom asked me who I wanted to bet on and I had made up my mind and I bet my $2 to show on a horse named Snappy Nashville. I did not remember or even know who or what jockey’s were let alone trainers and owners but I do remember Snappy Nashville won the race and my reward was a $4 return. I doubled my money and did it while something exciting was happening and I didn’t have to do anything but cheer.

I don’t even remember the rest of the day or if I even came out ahead on the day. But my first bet was a winning bet and I have been hooked ever since. The beauty and thrill of watching magnificent animals run with the brilliant athleticism of the jockeys with all the color of the silks, the different colors of the horses there was just something there that I and millions of others simply love about this sport.

This passion led to a great opportunity for me to actually work in the business I love so much and was on-staff as the Director of Promotions in the early days of Emerald Downs. Former Seattle Times sports reporter Gary Dougherty a former Seattle Times sports writer who covered horse racing and is a crazy racing fan as well has collected a massive collection of memorabilia including tons of programs and racing forms.

Dougherty now has the job I once held long ago and this last Sunday the promotion was a “throwback to the 70’s, a celebration of Longacres”. Dougherty had a bunch of his collection on tables where people could browse through old racing forms and programs. I stopped by to take a look at these relics and I saw the old Longacres programs stacked up there with the yellow striped silks on the Longacres jockey on the cover and knew that these were 1974.

So I wondered, I know my 1st day ever was on a Saturday and it was really warm and believed it was July. Then there it was. A program from my 1st day at the horse races. It was Saturday, July 27 the 53rd day of racing in the 41st year. I couldn’t believe my eyes, this little paper program had been where my love of this sport began and I got to hold it 49 years later, nearly a half a century.

I opened it up and there he is, Snappy Nashville #4 in the 2nd race, morning line 9-2 but went off at 4-1. Whosever program this was, likely a regular, had written in all the pay-outs, which ones got bute, the top 3 finishers, daily double will-pays and any other information relayed by Gary Henson the track announcer. And I love that this person did this, I love all the notes they took on this day.

I don’t remember if jockey Dennis Tierney came from off the pace or was a front runner but I remember the flash of yellow silks powering to the finish line 1st.

I began to continue to write about more of what we all have witnessed in horse racing to get to the current place we are and then I highlighted 30-minutes of writing and deleted it all. I want to finish this piece re-living the grandeur of the Golden Age of racing.

I want to end this by thanking those that made me fall in love with this sport, folks like Lennie Knowles, Bryson Cooper, Larry Pierce, Mike James, Steve Austin, all the Baze’s, Gary, Russell and Mike, Ken Doll, Vicky Aragon, Hugh Wales, Richard Hollingsworth, Lyle Perry Jr, Wendall Matt, Mark Murphy, Mark Hanna, Tom Dahlquist, Roy Yaka, Robert Howg, Jerry Taketa, J H Andrews, Jane Driggers, Barbara Thompson, Akifumi Kato, Lino Burgos, Jack Leonard, David Jones, Wendell Travers, Basil Frazier, Tom McCalister, Steve Goldsmith and most of all Dennis Tierney who rode my 1st bet to the winner’s circle.

So many other riders I have followed and loved to watch and the list is long. I then began to follow trainers beginning with Nub Norton whose box seats were right behind where my Grandparents liked to sit and they got to know Nub and he and his wife were so nice and then to get to work with their son Gary years later was amazing. Howard Belvoir has become a great friend along with all his boys, a young Frank Lucarelli, the great ones of Martin Kenney, Jim Penney, Clint Roberts, Craig Roberts, Richard Wright I got to see both ride and become a dominant trainer, Carl Baze, Claude Gibson, Ben Harris, Kathy Walsh, Kay Vaughn, T. D. McLaughlin, Dick Vanderhoof, Bud Klokstad and so many more.

And the stars of the show and to me as a kid Stakes horses weren’t the focus, horses I liked I still remember and stick out to me such as Synoptic Ob, Graystone, Paula Presents, El Toro Diablo, Banchory Bob, Splendid Splinter, Red Eye Express, Mah Be Ah, Fly Bumps, Theologist, Jim, Fleet Joey, Crafty Native, Steelenson, the Roni horses, the Toad horses, Great Form, Runin Prince, Ben Adhem, Ginger Sauce (my Grandma’s favorite), Silky Steel, Savannah Blue Jeans, Made’s Bold Son, Flamme, Red Baron Returns who won the Longacres Derby at 53-1 in 1983 the summer after I graduated in 1983 and paid $108 to win. I remember it because I had the $2 combo on old Red that day. 

Of course all the big stars such as Bad N Big, Trooper Seven, Chum Salmon, Gray Papa, Yu Wipi, Always Gallant, Skywalker, Simply Majestic, Traveling Victor and of course Chinook Pass.

But believe it or not, in my mind, in my experience give me my $1,600 claimer over all of them with a jockey I didn’t even remember until I saw his name in the program that Gary Dougherty so kindly gave me. Snappy Nashville and Dennis Tierney are solely responsible for creating this lifelong fan.