AUBURN, Wash. – Don Munger doesn’t get many opportunities when the stakes are high. The 90-year-old trainer and his wife, Wanda, run a modest breeding operation with their stallion Nacheezmo, and most of Munger’s horses at Emerald Downs compete in lower-level claiming races. But Munger seems to have found a stable star of sorts in Spit and Shine, an improving 3-year-old colt and a leading contender in Saturday’s eighth race, a first-level optional $40,000 claiming race. Munger’s backstory never gets old. He served in the Marines in World War II and fought on Iwo Jima before embarking on a training career. Daily Racing Form ’s database has him with 352 wins from 3,140 starters, but those records are incomplete. Munger got his first trainer’s license in 1950. Or it may have been 1949, he said. It was a long time ago. Munger has never really gone anywhere beyond the Pacific Northwest. The big tracks in California were never on his radar, though he did take a filly named Quiet Village to Bay Meadows a few times. According to DRF records, he has saddled horses at nine tracks – Longacres, Emerald Downs, Yakima Meadows, Portland Meadows, Exhibition Park, Bay Meadows, Sun Downs, Playfair, and Grant’s Pass – four of which no longer exist. Two summers ago, Munger cashed in on a big horse when J. Paul Reddam, the owner of 2012 Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another, paid him $100,000 for Roveing Patrol after the 2-year-old filly won a restricted stakes in her second Emerald Downs start. Spit and Shine is his best horse since Roveing Patrol. But he’s taking a big class jump after romping in a $15,000 claimer in his last start. “I think he’s going to be in tough in this race,” Munger said Thursday. “I’m forced to up him in class in order to keep him. I had offers from California after his last race, where he ran so good, and another one here at Emerald. So, I couldn’t run him back at that price that I ran him for last time. But he came a flyin’ and won by 9 1/4 lengths.” Munger said health concerns have occupied more of his time lately. He has won eight races at the current meeting, down from 20 two years ago. He has fewer horses in training now, and “I’ve had too many horses sore up this year,” he said. He’s holding out hope that 2015 will be a better year. “I’m getting around. Not good, but I’m getting there,” Munger said. “My health isn’t too good. I have congestive heart failure and bad lungs. That’s about it. I went to the doctor the other day, and he figured I had about another year at the most. But he could be wrong. I think he is.”