The Washington Horse Racing Commission approved the 2012 Emerald Downs race dates at their January meeting. This year's 81-day meet will begin on Friday, April 13, and run through Sunday, September 23. During April, May June and September, the track will run a Friday-Saturday-Sunday live schedule and will add Thursdays in July and August. Holiday racing will also be held on Monday, May 28; Tuesday, July 3; and Monday, September 3.

  The Emerald barns will be available for occupancy on Monday, January 30, and the track will open for training two days later, on Wednesday, February 1.

  2008 WTBOA September sale graduate and stakes winner Ebony n Ice finished her 2011 season with a second, a half-length behind Rare Sunset, in an about one mile turf allowance at Turf Paradise on December 23, adding $4,440 to give her $114,960 lifetime. The daughter of Tribunal out of stakes winner Last Phone Call, by Phone Order was bred and sold by Nancy and Chris Webber's Webber Crest Farm.

  Grade 2 stakes winner Washington Bridge, a 2007 daughter of Yankee Gentleman out of 1996 WTBOA sales graduate and $179,890 stakes winner Stirling Bridge, by Prized, was sold by Mark Dedomenico and partners for $330,000 as a broodmare prospect at the January Keeneland sale.

  2005 WTBOA September sale graduate and graded stakes-placed Yacht Spotter won his 13th race on January 3, 2012. His eight-length win in the about 7 1/2-furlong turf race at Turf Paradise raised his total earnings to $274,884. Bred by David and Jill Heerensberger out of Sarna, a multiple stakes-producing daughter of Son of Briartic, the now eight-year-old Washington-bred gelding by Slewdledo is trained by Mike Chambers.

  Roz Barclay's three-year-old Northern Causeway was named 2011 British Columbia horse of the year at the British Columbia awards dinner held in late November. The well-bred son of Giant's Causeway, who is trained by Len Kasmerski, took home stakes victories in his only two starts at Hastings Racecourse - the Richmond Derby Trial Handicap and $200,000 British Columbia Derby (Can-G3), in which Northern Causeway finished just a neck in front of R and R Warren LLC's Washington-bred Emerald Derby winner Jebrica in the Canadian Derby.

  Michael and Amy Feuerborn's homebred three-year-old filly Class Included, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Include out the couple's Emerald Downs champion A Classic Life also made two starts at the Vancouver track, winning the $100,000 British Columbia Oaks and finishing second by a neck against older fillies and mares in the $100,000 Ballerina Stakes (Can-G3). Class Included, who was honored as champion three-year-old filly at the dinner, also won the Washington Oaks and Seattle Handicap at Emerald Downs last year.

  The Jockey Club announced in mid-December the formation of a searchable online database which tracks rulings for Thoroughbred trainers at www.thoroughbredrulings.com. The information is supplied by racing regulatory authorities.

  According to James L. Gagliano, president and CEO of The Jockey Club, the database was formed "In response to recommendations from the recent McKinsey study. Thoroughbred Regulatory Rulings is one part of a strategic initiative to develop new information resources to assist owners and other decision makers in our industry."

  On November 18, 2011, President Obama signed a federal agriculture bill which does not include a prohibition on funding the inspection of horse meat. Inspections for horse meat have not been funded since 2006, forcing U S slaughterhouses to stop the practice, which led to horses being exported to Canada and Mexico to meet their demise. The highly controversial situation has been a "hotwire" topic both inside the horse industry and throughout the country.

  United Horsemen, a pro-slaughter group, led the push to strip the provision from the bill, contending that the slaughterhouses provide US horse owners with the means to dispose of unwanted animals without incurring the expense of euthanasia. Critics of the slaughter of horses contend that the practice is inhumane and inappropriate for horses.
  Among the other groups supporting the return of horse slaughterhouses is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
  The bill providing for the funding expires on September 30, 2012, at which time another appropriations bill or continuing resolution will need to be passed.  

  "I think it's hard to believe that slaughter facilities for horses are going to reopen in the US in the next year with that sword of Damocles hanging over their head," said Jay Hickey, the president of the American Horse Council, which is neutral on the issue of horse slaughter. "There's just too much uncertainty to invest millions of dollars in a processing plant right now."

James P. "Jim" Egger

  Jim Egger died in Spokane his 68th birthday on December 6, 2011. He was born in Chewelah, Washington to Pete and Bernie Egger.

  Jim was part owner of Riplinger Funeral Home in Spokane before retiring in 1998. He loved family gatherings at the cabin on Loon Lake. Jim enjoyed following sports, especially, when it involved his grandsons.

  His primary love was watching his Thoroughbreds race at Playfair Race Course in Spokane and Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona.

  He was preceded in death by his father in June 2010. Jim is survived by his wife of 44 years, Linda; daughter, Debi (Paul) Mackey; son Dean Egger; grandsons, Brad Egger, Aidan and Aaron Mackey; his mother, Bernie Egger; sister, Sharon (Fred) Tanner; brother, Ray (SueAnn) Egger; sister, Janet (Don) McLaughlin; numerous nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.

Norma Stone

  Norma Stone, 80, wife of leading American equine artist and industry supporter Fred Stone, died October 22, 2011, in Agoura Hills, California. A part of her husband's art business and philanthropy for 35 years, she had been in declining health for several years. Although increasingly frail, she insisted on working each morning to distribute Stone's prints and books until shortly before her death.

  Born Norma Ruth Paley in Cleveland, she and her family later moved to California. She attended UCLA for three years, but dropped out to go to work to support her husband, who had graduated from The Art Center School in Los Angeles and was seeking to establish himself as a commercial artist. Their daughter, Laura, was born in 1954 and a son, Russell, was born in 1956. Both live in the Los Angeles area.

  Fred Stone left commercial art to work in business for 15 years, and it was Laura who introduced him to the world of the racetrack in the mid-1970s. Within a few years, he and Norma had founded Equinart, the company that markets his artwork. Norma managed the business side and allowed her husband to paint in his garage-studio in their California home. As the business grew, Norma maintained a personal relationship with callers and correspondents.

  The Stones combined philanthropy with their business and through the years, their contributions to charities have totaled more than $2 million.

Julia Rose

  Unraced Julia Rose, the dam of 2010 Washington horse of the year and multiple champion Noosa Beach died just after Thanksgiving due to twisted intestines which also involved her heart and arteries. The unraced daughter of stakes winners Basket Weave and Cure My Blue's, by Cure the Blues, was 14.

  Bred by Jeff and Doris Harwood, Julia Rose produced six winners from her first seven foals of racing age, including Noosa Beach and stakes-placed War Alert (Tiffany Ice). Noosa Beach was also bred by the Harwoods before they traded his dam to Pam and Neil Christopherson. A 12-time stakes winner, who won the 2010 Longacres Mile (G3) and finished second in the marquee race in 2011, Noosa Beach, a 2006 son of the Christophersons' Harbor the Gold, has 14 wins in 21 starts and has earned $520,722.

  In 2011, Noosa Beach's full brother, now named Music of My Soul, was purchased by Elttaes Stable for $82,000, the second highest price at the WTBOA Summer yearling and mixed sale.

  Julia Rose's final foal, also a colt by Harbor the Gold, was born on April 16, 2011.

Lady Golightly

  2010 Washington champion two-year-old filly Lady Golightly lost her long and valiant battle on December 31. From the first Washington crop of Matty G, the dark bay filly had been totally overlooked at the 2009 WTBOA Summer Yearling Sale and hence made four career starts for her breeders, Terry and Mary Lou Griffin and trainer Tom Wenzel and his wife Melissa under Lady Golightly Racing. After placing in her first two efforts, Lady Golightly earned her maiden tally by taking the open Barbara Shinpoch Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths and then cemented her title after scoring an 8 1/2-length win in the Diane Kem Stakes. She earned $49,600 during her Emerald Downs career.

  One of four winners for Grade 2 Canadian stakes winner Lady Beverly, a daughter of Frosty the Snowman, Lady Golightly underwent minor surgery shortly after the 2010 Emerald Downs meet from which complications arose. The gallant filly, due to the round-the-clock care needed and her winning personality, became the barn pet at the Wenzel barn last year and remained in good spirits and eating well at her breeders' Griffin Place up until foundering in her opposite foot which led to her demise.

Loto Canada

  Just as the December 2011 Washington Thoroughbred Stallion Register was going to press, with the tribute to Loto Canada which appeared in the "Second Chances' column, it was learned that two-time Washington champion had passed away on New Year's Day due to the infirmities of old age. He had just officially turned 35.

  Foaled on March 5, 1977, at his breeder Jerre Paxton's Kwik Lok Corporation - later renamed Northwest Farms - in Yakima, the son of Saltville-Petite Patootie, by Crafty Admiral, was purchased privately for a reported $5,000 by Lee and Patti Brauer, who had decided to spend some of their recent Canadian lotto winnings on a racehorse. Turned over to trainer Len Kasmerski, the medium-sized grandson of Tom Fool earned the first of four consecutive stakes races as a juvenile by taking the Blue Boy Stakes at Exhibition Park (now Hastings Racecourse). He also added victories in the Gottstein Futurity and Stripling and Tukwila stakes to his two-year-old tally and also finished third in the Grade 3 Sunny Slope Stakes at Santa Anita and the Washington Stallion Stakes en route to being named Washington champion two-year-old.

  Sent to Oaklawn Park in the early spring of his sophomore year, Loto Canada defeated future Belmont Stakes (G1) winner and champion Temperence Hill in an allowance test at the Arkansas track.. He later won the William E. Boeing Stakes at Longacres by 10 lengths, equaling the track record and finished second to Pappy in the Longacres Derby. The speedy runner also ran third in both the Grade 2 Silver Screen and Grade 3 El Dorado handicaps at Hollywood Park that season and earned his second state title.

  At four, Loto Canada won both the Seattle and Washington Championship handicaps and finished third in the Longacres Mile (G3) and Renton Handicap.

  At five, he placed in two additional Longacres stakes. He was retired due to a hoof injury, but not before recording a record of 11-5-10 from 33 starts during his five-year career and earning $311,993 (SSI 10.82).

  After spending most of his retirement years in the Yakima area, which was home to the Brauers, Loto Canada moved to the farm of John and Tanja Parker and family to be loved and spoiled during his final years.

  In a note from John Parker to tell us of the champion's death, he reported that Loto Canada's right front leg just could no longer support his weight and the time had come to say goodbye.  

  "We thanked him for the courage and warmness he brought to my family and for showing us what a little horse with a gigantic heart can do. His head was on my wife's lap and she was stroking him as he took his last breath. The little horse that could was gone at the ripe old age of 35. We buried him that day in a place my wife picked out on our property with a salute and care package of a Snickers bar, mints, an apple, and a course, a cola. It's now the racetrack in the sky for a horse that gave it all."

Military Hawk

  Washington champion Military Hawk, 24, died of colic in late December. One of Washington's all-time leading money earners, the gelding won 12 stakes races and earned $688,128 over a nine-year-career during which he was a stakes winner or stakes-placed in each season he ran.

  Bred and raced by the late George Sedlock (see December 2011 issue for obituary) and his wife Norma under their G & N Thoroughbreds, he raced 86 times for the Bellevue couple, winning 18 races and placing in 25 additional stakes at 11 different racetrack ranging along the West Coast from British Columbia to Northern California. He won or placed in stakes at Yakima Meadows, Playfair, Longacres and Emerald Downs and at the Vancouver, B.C. oval when it was called both Exhibition Park and Hastings Racecourse.

  Named Washington champion handicap horse of 1992, the son of Washington champion Colonel Stevens - who also raced in the Sedlock silks - out of S. S. Hawk, by Flying Lark, won two stakes at Longacres that year and placed in six other stakes.

  Military Hawk finished his racing career in the Emerald Downs' winner's circle on August 17, 1997, after he notched a head victory in a $40,000 claiming race. National and Washington Hall of Famer Gary Stevens was in the saddle for the chestnut's retirement ride.

  Trained by Sharon and Larry Ross through his long and successful career, Military Hawk retired to the Rosses' Auburn farm where the classy runner lived out his days with a band of other top pensioned race geldings.

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