A day at the races

I know this is on the heels of the canoe journey and is out of sequence but it’s a fun  day.

RP and I had the rare Saturday off work together and of course had no idea what we were going to do.  A myriad of ideas presented and we decided to go to Emerald Downs.

Emerald Downs is the horse race track off highway 167 between Auburn and Kent.  The previous race track was called Longacres and operated for sixty (60) seasons till its close in 1992.  In 1996 Emerald Downs opened as an LLC.  The land was bought by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe in 2002 and continued operation under the LLC until 2015 when the Muckleshoot Tribe got their racing license.

Anyway, we point Beastie Boy north on I-5 to 512 and across to 167 and then north to Auburn  the exit is well marked and the parking is extremely easy to get into.  Don’t worry if you have to park at a satellite area as the track runs a shuttle continually.  They do have a loyalty club and it doesn’t hurt to have it as its good for a reduction at the gate.  It’s set up like a lot of tracks with a covered grandstand graduating to enclosed boxes.  If you just go through the betting kiosks you wind up where all the action is.  You come out to the fixed benches near trackside which is our favorite spot to be.  To the left is the paddock where you can get your first look at the contenders.  To the right is the winners circle and media pit.

Food is plentiful and okay even if it’s overpriced and the drinks are the same way.

One of the most famous races held here is the Longacres Mile which is a draw from all over the thoroughbred racing world.

Today, however, the first heats of the Indian horse racing championship are being held.  These races are 2 miles and the racing is done in teams.  Part of the team holds the horses and one man rides.  The race is conducted unlike a regular track race in that the riders are given a moving start, there is no start gate, just the starters eye and pistol.  The riders change horses in “the pits” three times which is where the holders on the team come in to play.  They are literally equivalent to a Nascar pit crew.  They show the rider where their horse is waiting and get the horse ready to be mounted.  If all this sounds a little chaotic, well……it is.  The teams all wear either traditional or very garish regalia (the idea is to stand out from each other, remember think nascar pit crew).  The horses are decorated with paint denoting the teams traditional symbols for their tribe and look wild and definitely not what you would usually see at a thoroughbred track.

Some very important basics:  You must be Native American to compete.  You must be youngish.  And it helps immensely if you are very wiry and totally uncaring about your safety.  The horses wear bridles, usually adorned with feathers and ribbons.  And oh, did I mention, they are riding bareback.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piq9B3pQNQM[/embedyt]

The enthusiastic crowd surges to the fence to get a good look.  There’s definitely some serious rivalries going on.  Groups from different areas cheering for their favorite team and jeering all the rest.  There are a lot of what I have come to think of as uniforms from the reservation.  They are sweatshirts (hoodies) and t-shirts emblazoned with sayings of “rez girl”, “Native Pride”, “rez life”, and any number of different articles of clothing denoting some function that has taken place in the Native communities.  There are also a lot of men in jeans, western shirts, cowboy boots and cowboy hats.

The riders all get out on the track and after a couple false starts, they are off…..  we watch the riders change horses on the jumbotron and they head our way.  The holders are yelling and waving.  The crowd is loud and boisterous.  The riders fly up in front of us (of course, we got a place at the fence to watch) and fly off their horses in barely controlled chaotic leaps to the ground, bound up onto their remount and with war whoops and kicks fly off on the next leg.  They change horses again on the far side of the track and finish in front of us.  Hair, manes, tails, ribbons and feathers all flying in the wind the riders rush by us and a winner is declared amongst the roar of the crowd.  There is much hugging and kissing along with back slapping and jeers mixed in with the cheers.  The winner is not a practiced orator and shyly stumbles through the questions asked in the winners circle before he heads out and recounts his horse with a war cry and rides off to the stables.

There are three of these races interspersed with the regular thoroughbred racing, which is definitely an also ran when mixed with Indian races.  In one of the races we got to see what happens if you miss your horse change.  The rider leapt from his horse and as the holder released the horse the rider stumbled and the horse took off rider less to run around the track.

Some of the best fun ever at a horse track!  If you ever get the chance to go to Emerald Downs it is definitely worth it and the trip is made especially fun during the Indian horse races.

See ya out there.

BFD