People in the Seattle area have long complained about the hordes of Californians who have moved north in pursuit of cheaper housing and milder weather. The opposite reaction is now occurring a half-hour south of the city at Emerald Downs, where, thanks to an unprecedented influx of barns formerly based in Northern California, the jewel-box track with the spectacular view of Mount Rainier stands to have more horses on its backstretch than at any point in the last decade for a 51-date meet that opens Sunday. With the recent halting of racing at Golden Gate Fields and Pleasanton, trainers in Northern California were forced to scramble for stable space, and Emerald – which sent a small delegation of officials south this past winter to roll out the straw carpet – has attracted a slew of them, including opening-day participants Michael Lenzini, Jorge Maravilla, Jose Puentes, and Victor Trujillo. No doubt instrumental in this migration was Blaine Wright, who finished second behind Justin Evans in Emerald’s 2024 trainer standings and has long had robust strings in both Northern California and at Emerald. [Wright] “always speaks very highly of the experience here,” said Phil Ziegler, Emerald Downs’s president. “We’ve heard from a number who came for the first time, including Justin Evans, that there’s nothing better than the beauty of running here, especially during the summer months. People think it rains a lot here. It just doesn’t rain a lot during our meet. Once the season gets going, we’re fast almost every day and the weather is perfect.” Sundays have been central to Emerald’s appeal to fans of all ages. Average attendance for all dates was up 10 percent last year, to 3,371, and Ziegler sees no reason for a reversal of fortune. “We have great fans who come out to the track and support live racing here,” he said. “We run on weekends and do a lot of promotions to bring folks here. We might have pony rides or a kids’ race or grandparents’ race.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Bettors who are fond of pick threes will find more to like at this year’s meet, as the track has reduced its takeout on such wagers from 20 percent to 12 percent. “I feel like if you just do a promotional pick five, once a day, it doesn’t really help the bettors a lot,” Ziegler explained. Another change is the consolidation of the track’s 22 stakes races, including the $125,000 Longacres Mile on Aug. 17, to just five dates – four Sundays and a Saturday – versus peppering them throughout the meet. “When we used to just run one stakes race, it really didn’t capture a lot of attention and we didn’t see a big boost in handle,” Ziegler said. “We’ve seen other tracks be pretty successful in developing these big stakes days. I think it’ll be exciting. The other thing it might do, for trainers to ship horses, maybe you’ve got a couple horses for a couple different races, maybe it’s easier to participate.” The first four stakes will be run June 22. Until then, racing will largely be of the workaday variety, with a one-mile claiming race on dirt (Emerald’s lone racing surface) attracting a field of five older geldings in Sunday’s race 3. Coastal Waters, 9-5 on the morning line, will likely go as a justifiable favorite after shipping in from Turf Paradise, where he finished in the money in his last two starts. While he’s never raced at Emerald, his dam, Winning Weave, won 10 times in 66 starts on the local strip. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.