4/19/2025

(Auburn, WA) The 30th Emerald Downs season will begin on Sunday, April 27 with the 1st race of the 2025 season beginning at 1:50pm. Before we dive into the upcoming season let me first say that we will be focusing on the sport in our reporting. We know all of the negative issues facing horse racing and racing in Washington State. But at this time there is nothing we can do but wait and see how some of these issues will work themselves out one way or another.

In the meantime, there are already nearly 650 horses on the grounds and when Turf Paradise finishes their season season on May 3rd, Kentucky Derby day you can expect another influx of horses especially with the state or rather, non-state of racing in Northern California and could push the number of horses to more than 1,000.

There will be many of our returning favorites including horses, jockeys, trainers and owners and some more new names along with some old friends returning to the Northwest or having a much larger presence than they have had over the past few years.

Season 30 is also the exact halfway point that the historic Longacres race track ran. Longacres opened in 1933 and closed in 1992. They ran every year but one during World War II for a total of 59 seasons. This makes it the 89th season of thoroughbred racing in Western Washington. The 30th season also makes it official that Emerald Downs is now more than halfway to length of time Longacres was in existence. So, that being said let’s get excited about this season it is setting up to be a great year in NW racing.

Link to Emerald Downs dot com

Returning Champions

Jockeys

Jockey Alex Cruz will be returning to defend his riding title, well defend his 5 straight riding Championships which is a state record that he keeps adding too. Cruz has confirmed he will be back to go for #6. Also coming back is Manuel Americano. Americano came on in the 2nd half of the season beginning the year as an apprentice. Americano is currently leading the jockey standings at Turf Paradise with 74 wins and nearly 1.2-million in earnings. Cruz sits in 5th place with 56 wins and little more than 900k in earnings.

Other returning riders include Carlos Montalvo, Juan Gutierrez, Kevin Orozco, Kevin Krigger, Allyssa Morales, Silvio Amador and Javier Matias. Some new but familiar faces include Francisco Duran, Julien Couton, Ronald Richard and David Haldar-Marquez.

Montalvo finished 5th in the final standings with 40 wins but was 3rd in earnings with 638k. He did this by leading all riders in stakes races with 4 wins. Montalvo has been entrenched with trainer Tom Wenzel who led trainers in the Stakes wins with 5.

One not returning is Kevin Radke who suffered a serious injury at Turf Paradise about a year ago and did not return to racing at all at Emerald Downs last season and has since retired from racing. Jennifer Whitaker is back exercising horses after suffering a serious leg injury last year. Reportedly she is still re-habbing the injury but it is a great sign to see her back on the horses in the morning.

Trainers

Justin Evans will be back to defend his 2-time training championships. Last year Evans broke through winning 3 Stakes races last year while taking the trianing title. Evans finished with 63 win nearly double of the 34 for 2nd place Blaine Wright. Evans also led the overall earnings with 865k.

Blaine Wright is back and will have a full stable. Wright had another tremendous season finishing 2nd in overall wins with 34 more than 600lk in earnings. He was tied for 2nd in stakes wins with 4 trailing only Tom Wenzel with 5.

Kay Cooper’s barn is on the smaller side these days but she shined again in the stakes races winning 4 from 8 starts and 2 places for a blazing 50% win clip and 75% in the exacta.

The all-time leading trainer at Emerald Downs, Frank Lucarelli will be back with a full stable. He finished 3rd in the trainer standings but was shut out in the Stakes races and no doubt will be aiming to rectify that issue in 2025.

Tom Wenzel again will have a small but powerful barn and took home 5 Stakes trophies which accounted for a 1/3 of his 15 wins for the season. Wenzel with his fan favorite Slew’s Tiz Whiz which he is part owner will be back along with a menacing line-up from his top owner George Todaro. Wenzel will have to be dealt with on Stakes races days.

Other trainers back and there are plenty of familair names like Howard Belvoir, Vince Gibson, Candi Cryderman, Joe Toye, Scott Tubbs, Tim McCanna, Charles Essex, Bonnie Jenne and Jorge Rosales.

Others that began last year and expected back are Alexis Silva-Martinez, Miguel Hernandez and Faustino Patino.

Some new names include Pablo De Jesus, Gary Greiner, Patty Leany, Isidro Tamayo and Victor Trujillo to name a few.

Of course there are many more and we’re excited to follow everyone for the upcoming season.

Owners

Last year’s leading owners were the team of Rakoczy Racing and Justin Evans. They rolled up 17 wins from 44 starts and collected 211k in earnings.

Miguel H Racing was 2nd, Miguel H is trainer Miguel Hernandez and he got his picture taken 13 times. Former Owner Champion and huge racing supporter John Parker had 12 wins and will have his usual large stable of yellow and black colors represented well. He led all owners with 71 starts and added 9 places and 10 shows.

Those 3 owners were the only ones to crack double digit wins.

Other familiar owners include leading stakes owner George Todaro with 5 wins and 128k in earnings. The Blue Ribbon stable had the 2nd most stakes wins with 3 and will be back with trainer Kay Cooper.

Other likely owners include the team of John and Janene Maryanski and Gerald and Gail Schneider, Alex and Vincent Ortega, Vanessa Arballo, the son of leading trainer Justin Evans, Austin Evans who had 6 winners last season, Oak Crest Racing and Lusk Racing.

Horses

With 650 horses alrerady on the grounds many of your favorites will be back to be sure. However, one will not and that is the winner of the Longacres Mile last year, Five Star General. The Grant Forster trained Champion has been retired to stud after a spectacular career. Owners Elttaes Stable decided to let the 8-year-old leave competition for the breeding shed.

Five Star General retired with a career record of 13-6-9 from 39 lifetime starts and banked $902,202. There will be a new Longacres Mile Champion in 2025.

Another former champ and fan favorite won’t be back either as she has been retired to breed as well and that is Blazingbellablu. Blu was bred and owned by Petra Lewin and Charlie Essex and trained by Essex. She won the Hastings Stakes last year with regular rider Alex Cruz but then suffered an injury and Lewin and Essex decided to be safe and end her racing career.

Blu was 9-7-3 from 23 total starts. This was an amazing 39% win rate and top 3 finish at 74%.

The George Todaro string of top horses will likely have several coming back. Todaro’s stakes winners from last year included Miner League, La Push and 2 time winner Aloha Breeze are expected to return to the Auburn oval.

Last year’s horse of the year, Precise Timing, a winner of 3 stakes races will be ready for her 3-year-old season. Fan fav Slew’s Tiz Whiz finished with another strong year winning 1 stakes race, a deadheat with Arma D’ Oro in the Governor’s Stakes. Slew had a strong run in the Longsacres Mile but settled for 3rd behind Five Star General and Clovisconnection.

These are a just a the few of the many favorites coming back to Emerald Downs.

Stakes Race Schedule

This year the 20 thoroughbred stakes races will be held on just 4 racecards. The 1st day of stakes is Sunday, June 22 with Auburn, Seattle, Budweiser and Hastings stakes being contested. The 1st of two 6 stakes races on a card is Sunday, July 20 where the Irish Day, Kent, Governor’s, Legislator’s, Angie C and the King County stakes.

The 2nd of the 6 stakes racecard is on Championship Sunday, August 17 with the Emerald Distaff, Muckleshoot Derby, Washington Oaks, the Lads and Lassie’s and capped off with the Longacres Mile.

The final day of Stakes races is closing day on September 7 with the Muckleshoot Juvenile Fillies, Distaff and Classic. The season will finish with the traditional Gottstein Futurity.

There will be 2 more stakes races but will be quarterhorse stakes races.  The John Deere and AQHA Racing Championship will be run on August 16.

Admission and other information on attending the races

Admission to enter is $10 for adults and $5 for youth. There are several other options for admission and packages that include reserved seating. All admissions receive a free program.

There is plenty of free seating and area’s of reserved seats as well. Emerald Downs offers several group packages from reserved grandstand seats to suite rentals on the 6th floor.

There is also paid preferred parking but lots of free parking as well with shuttles right to the front gates.

For all the details and information check out the Emerald Downs webpage with details on admission and ticketing details on this link.

Promotions and Fun

Many of your favorite promotional days will be back including the 3rd of July Fireworks Spectacular. The Corgi’s will be back along with the Bulldogs, Weiner and wanna-be dog races.

There will be family days, grandparents day with the grandparents race, diaper derby, ice cream celebration, Premio Esmerelda days and more.

The Muckleshoot Gold Cup Indian Relays weekend is set for June 13, 14 and 15.Oktoberfest on closing weekend and FAB Friday’s are back when Friday night racing begins on June 6. Of course the starts on the 1st Saturday of May with the

For a complete list of the Emerald Promotional calendar click on this link.

Betting

For the most part the wagering options will be the same with the regular $2 minimum Win, Place and Show bets and the penny breakage for all bets is giving more money back to the bettors.

The popular $1 Exacta, 50-cent Trifecta and 10-cent Superfecta are all back. The $1 rolling Daily Double, 50-cent Pick 3, Pick 4 and Pick 5’s will be offered. The Pick 3 however, will offer just a 12% take-out putting more money in the pot to give back to players.

In the final race of the day the 50-cent Super Hi 5 is back and with the boost in horse population it should really help boost these pools.

The only change is one we think is a great move. Emerald experimented with a 50-cent traditional pick 6 last year that never caught on. It was too close to the pick 5 and the pick 5’s paid more.

This year Emerald is going back to the 20-cent Jackpot Pick 6. This bet did accumulate several large pots over the years it was offered. To win you must pick 6 straight winners and you will cash your ticket. However, to win the full pot you must hold the single winning ticket and you take it all. If you and others have a winning ticket then you share a percent of the pot with the rest carrying over.

Last year’s top pay-outs:

Betting Favorites
Season: 161-434 (37.1%)
Odds-on: 68-125 (54.4%)
Avg. $2 Win: $10.20

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