Season set to open April 27 with three weekends of racing

The snowy

start to this year’s horse racing season delayed training for more than a month

at Sun Downs Race Track in Kennewick.

It also postponed the start of the annual six-day meet at Sun Downs.

But

don’t despair, horse race fans, the season is galloping close.

“We’re

now starting one week later, with Saturday, April 27, being opening day,” said

Nancy Sorick, who heads up the nonprofit Tri-Cities Horse Racing Association,

now in its 32nd year.

This year’s season is April 27-28 and May 4-5 and 11-12 – all Saturdays and Sundays at the Benton County Fairgrounds, 1500 S Oak St.

The first

race is at 1 p.m. each day. Cost of admission is $5, while parking is free.

Race

cards – the number of races scheduled each day – vary between seven to 10.

Traditionally,

the track’s opening weekend has always been busy and well attended, with trial

races for the Pot O’Gold Futurity.

It's the same story for the final weekend, with the Saturday Kentucky Derby wagering and the finals of the Pot O’Gold Futurity, as well as the stakes races.

But

the middle weekend has always been slow, as the faster horses take that weekend

off to race in the big-money races on the final weekend.

Now,

however, with the schedule change, the Kentucky Derby weekend is the middle

weekend.

“The

middle weekend will be key,” Sorick said.

During

the race meet, the TCHRA employs 50 to 60 people, from program sellers, to

people working the wagering machines, to people at the gate.

The

TCHRA also signed a new three-year lease with the Benton County commissioners

to run the races that begins this year.

“We

have a good rapport with the county commissioners,” said Sorick, who noted the

TCHRA has had the track open since Feb. 1. The association must be out by June

1.

This

year’s winter weather made the track impossible for horses to run on in

February and much of March.

But by

late March, trainers had the quarter horses out on the track exercising.

Other trainers, such as Boardman’s Hector Magallanes (last season’s trainer of the meet), took a stable down to Los Alamitos to train before coming back to Kennewick.

Sorick

and racing secretary Shorty Martin said the money that Sun Downs gets from the

Washington State Horse Racing Commission to help run the meet – which is

one-tenth of 1 percent of the live handle at Emerald Downs in Auburn – is down

from the previous year.

At

times, it’s been as much as $100,000 in the past.

“It’s

about $75,000 this year,” Martin said. “We only need to make up about $18,000

this year. Nancy is a really good manager of money. And we didn’t drop the

purses this year because we want to make sure people come.”

Sorick

added that the state horse racing commission did help Sun Downs with some of

the insurance costs.

The

last four years, too, the TCHRA has considered its meets successful.

Meanwhile,

over the next month leading up to the season opener, more and more horses will

be filling up the backside barns.

And

Martin, who also trains the 2-year-olds how to start a race using a starting

gate, begins starting gate school in the next few weeks.

“We’re

a bit behind schedule, but actually with the meet starting one week later,

we’re OK,” Martin said.

Once

again, Sun Downs will be simulcasting the Kentucky Derby on May 4 and local

fans will be able to wager on the race.

Also

during the meet, Sun Downs will host regional stakes races – the American

Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Adequan Derby Challenge Finals, and the AQHA

Distaff Challenge Finals – where the winners advance to the national finals

later in the year in Los Alamitos Race Track in California.

The

biggest local race at Sun Downs will be the $30,000 Pot O’Gold Futurity. Trials

are April 28, finals are May 12.

“Right

now we have 43 entries for that,” Martin said.

Sorick

has her usual goals for a great meet.

“Have

a good, clean race meet,” she said. “And a lot of horses. And everybody comes

out and enjoys the races. And they have a good time.”

She’s

confident that will happen.

“I

believe people will be there to support us,” Sorick said. “The horsemen will be

here. We’ll make it.”

For more information, go to sundownshorseracing.com.