Longacres Mile, EmD3-On-3
highlight Emerald Downs’ 18th season of racing
Emerald Downs has announced a 75-day live racing season for
2013, beginning April 19 and closing September 29. The 2013 dates were approved
earlier this month at the Washington Horse
Racing Commission’s monthly meeting.
Live racing will be every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with
holiday racing on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27; Independence Day, Thursday, July
4; and Labor Day, Monday, September 2. The annual Fireworks Spectacular follows
the races on July 3. Post times are 6:45 p.m. (PT) Fridays and
2 p.m. weekends and holidays.
The 78th running of the Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile, scheduled for August 18,
is the highlight of a 29-race stakes schedule. Also featured will be four stakes double-headers and Washington Cup XI.
Emerald Downs will also be a
basketball hotbed this summer when the Northwest oval introduces
EmD3-On-3, a two-day
hoops extravaganza on 30 courts in the north parking lot.
Beginning May 12 with the $50,000 Hastings Handicap for
older fillies and mares, and ending closing day, September 29, with a
double-header for two-year-olds of the $75,000 Gottstein Futurity and $50,000
Cahill Road, a total of $1,545,00 will be offered in stakes purses.
Twenty-seven stakes are scheduled on Sundays including the Longacres Mile, which will be run August 18 as part of a
stakes double-header also featuring the $65,000 Emerald Distaff for older
fillies and mares. The Longacres Mile culminates a tremendous eight-day
stretch of racing that features championship races in four categories. August 10 features
sophomore fillies in the $65,000 Washington Oaks at
1 1/8 miles and on August 11, three-year-old colts and geldings line up in the
$65,000 Emerald Downs Derby, also at 1 1/8 miles.
In all, August features seven stakes worth an aggregate
$535,000 in purses.
Designed to allow all divisions a chance for large purses,
the stakes schedule features 10 events for older horses, 10 stakes for
three-year-olds, eight stakes for juveniles and one event for Quarter Horses.
“Our goal is to present a balanced stakes schedule, and to
gradually stretch horses out to longer distances,” Director of Racing Bret
Anderson said. “We aim to have horses peaking for the biggest races.”
The road to the Longacres Mile begins with the $50,000
Governor’s Handicap for three-year-olds and up at 6 1/2 furlongs on May 19, and
continues with the $50,000 Budweiser Handicap at one mile on June 16. The
$50,000 Mt. Rainier Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on July 21 serves as the
final local prep for The Mile.
The two-year-old division has been tweaked and tilted
slightly toward the latter half of the season. The Gottstein Futurity,
the traditional championship event for juveniles, has been lengthened to 1 1/16
miles and is half of a closing day double-header featuring the newly minted
Cahill Road for two-year-olds at six furlongs.
The Gottstein and Cahill Road are the final events of the
Northwest Race Series for two-year-olds, which begins July 28 with the $50,000
Emerald Express for juvenile colts and geldings.
Washington Cup XI — six races exclusively for
Washington-breds worth an aggregate $225,000 — is scheduled for September 8,
culminating with the $50,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic for three-year-olds and-up
at 1 1/16 miles.
The inaugural EmD3-On-3 will take place August 10-11 — the week before the Longacres
Mile — and is expected to attract players from all over Washington and possibly
beyond. The event will be modeled after the extraordinarily successful Hoopfest
in Spokane, which began with 2,000 players in 1990 and has grown to one of the
city’s biggest events with nearly 28,000 players and 3,000 volunteers in 2012.
“The Puget Sound region is one of the nation’s biggest hotbeds for basketball,
with tremendous interest and participation in youth, high school and collegiate
programs,” Emerald Downs President Ron Crockett explained. “A 3-On-3 tournament
is a natural, and we have a great venue that is centrally located for easy
access.”
To be held on 30 side-by-side half-courts in the parking lot north of the
grandstand, EmD3-On-3 is open to teams and players of all ages and abilities.
Cost per team is $120 with each team guaranteed at least three games.
For more information and sponsorship opportunities, please contact event
coordinator Bob Fraser at
bobf@emeralddowns.com or 253-288-7028. First-year sponsors will enjoy
inaugural year pricing for the first five years of sponsorship renewal.
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