Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Aug. 13, 2026

A good Thursday morning to you all! This is King’s Plate weekend and it should be a fun Saturday, with a slew of other stakes from lots of great tracks. But I have to write about my favorite race of the year on Sunday. The Longacres Mile will be run for the 91st time in my home state of Washington at Emerald Downs and I’m excited. I had the good pleasure of talking to Joe Withee from Emerald Downs on the podcast Wednesday and it was fun to just geek out about my favorite race with him. 

No doubt “the Mile” losing its grading and having the purse decrease in recent years has been a bummer and has certainly hurt the race a bit. However, I think for people in the Northwest, it’s still the pinnacle of the racing summer and a memorable event. It sounds as though Bob Baffert and Mark Glatt might be sending horses up for the race which should add a bit more of the classical flavor this year. What I mean by that was for years it always seemed as though the race would feature a California invader or two and that usually became part of the storyline. Would the local contingent be able to beat the California invaders? Often most years there was also a horse from Hastings that would come down. 

The Longacres Mile dates back to 1935 at Longacres Race Course in Renton, Washington. Sixty editions of the race were run at that oval including the final Mile there when Ron Hanson guided Bolulight to a win. Some great horses won the race including Simply Majestic, Chum Salmon, Trooper Seven, and so many more. My favorite horse of all-time, Captain Condo, never won it but he did finish second behind Louis Cyphere in 1991. 

When Longacres shuttered in 1992 the race moved over to Yakima Meadows which is about two hours southeast of Seattle in the central part of the state. There were three runnings of the race over at Yakima Meadows before Emerald Downs opened in 1996, and the race has lived at Emerald for these past 30 years. If you’ll indulge me, let me share a few of my favorite editions and stories. 

In 2002 Sabertooth was a 17-1 upset winner going gate to wire. My good friend Steve was a jockey agent and his rider Nate Chaves was on board for that score. Steve bought a big screen TV and named it Sabertooth with the commission check from that win. 2003 One of my favorite editions came in 2003 when Sky Jack came up and set the track record going 1:33 flat, beating Poker Brad, a horse who I always thought wanted more distance than the mile. 

Selfishly, 2005 is one of my all-time favorite editions. Speed wasn’t holding early in the day so I ended up playing a trifecta keying some closers and wouldn’t you know it, 60-1 No Giveaway got up in the final jumps to key a $4,900 trifecta, just below the tax withholding line of $5,000! 

Maybe the coolest Mile I ever got to see live was when Wasserman got up to win in 2008. Jockey Jennifer Whitaker was the regular rider and assistant for trainer Howard Belvoir and Wasserman was a super classy old guy. It’s still the loudest I’ve ever heard the Emerald Downs apron. People were screaming and everyone stuck around for the winner’s circle presentation afterwards and cheered. While it’s cool to see the big national barns come in, I think most of us still always want the title and the money to stay home. 

 I wish I could be there this year, but I hope everyone back in Washington has a great day celebrating our great race.