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The day Spanky was a winner
By Emily Wilmot I remember the first time a horse of ours ever won, while I'd been around. (I was born in 1984.) Now, we'd run horses at Longacres near the end -- the most memorable was Crucial War (Flyer to us). He was a career maiden. In his 3-year-old season I can't recall how many times he finished second. He ran 22 races from age 2 to age 5, and was second or third six times each. He was so fun to own, he really brought our family together for days at the track. Also near the end of Longacres we bought through our trainer a filly who had broken down and was no longer sound to race, for a broodmare. She was called Suzy, but her racing name was Out With the Boys. Her first time in the breeding shed she didn't take, so we waited until the next spring. We would breed her to Crafty Native, one of Washington's best in the 1970s, in the hopes of breeding our own racehorse. Spanky was born March 7, 1993, at the Jones Farm. We watched him grow and hoped that one day we would join him in the winner's circle -- a first for a family-owned horse of ours -- at whatever track would be built to replace Longacres. Spanky grew and in his 2-year-old season he was ready to run, for the Emerald meet at Yakima Meadows in 1995. His first race wasn't much, though the whole family made the trek from Seattle to Yakima May 28 of that year. Of the twentysome-strong family cheering section there had been for his first start, only six, myself included, went back again on June 15. He was in the first race, with Vicky Aragon (she was Aragon then) to be in the saddle. It was a modest 2-year-old maiden $12,500 claiming race, 4 1/2 furlongs. He was breaking from post position 2. We sat up in the stands on the green benches right above the boxes, at the top of the stretch. The gates opened and somehow, our hot pink silks were out in front! Oh, we were all screaming as the field began to maneuver the turn. Spanky was on the rail, with Ron Crockett's Barely Even Steven right outside of him. They were just about nose and nose as they neared the quarter pole. Then, the other horse began to bear out, yet Spanky kept a straight course into the stretch. The horses swept past our vantage point (by this time we had run down to the very bottom box seats in our excitement) and toward the wire. Spanky and Barely Even Steven had stayed right together, to the end it seemed. "Did he win??? Did he win??!" we were all anxiously saying as we made our way down to the track level. We heard Gary Henson, the announcer, say "Photo finish!" on our way down. I was in shock. I couldn't believe that we actually might have WON, with our own horse. We reached the winner's circle, and the attendant told us we'd won. And I almost broke down into tears in the winner's circle just before our little Spanky was led in. It was an incredible feeling, just simply unbelievable, and I will never forget it. |