Glatt to be inducted into Washington Racing Hall of Fame
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer Mark Glatt is a native of Washington state best known for his success in California, where he is the leading trainer at the current Santa Anita winter-spring meeting.
Glatt began his career in more modest surroundings, winning his first race at tiny Yakima Meadows in Washington in 1994. For his accomplishments in the last 30 years, Glatt will be inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame this summer. The ceremony will be held Aug. 16, the eve of the $125,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs.
“It certainly is a privilege,” Glatt said last weekend. “It’s a nice accomplishment.”
Through Tuesday, Glatt had 1,307 career wins. He was the leading trainer at the 2023 Santa Anita autumn meeting and the 2024 Del Mar autumn meeting.
Glatt is being honored for what he has done since he left Washington. He has not had a runner in Washington since Law Abidin Citizen won the Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in 2019.
“The Mile is the signature race in the Northwest,” Glatt said. “You always want to try to win that race if you’re training horses.”
It is possible Glatt will have a runner in this year’s Longacres Mile.
“Every year, I look to see if I have something that will make sense to go up there and try it with,” he said. “Unfortunately, the purse isn’t what is used to be. It’s an expensive place to get to. Everything has to line up just right to go up there.”
Glatt trained at Emerald Downs during the track’s inaugural season in 1996 and has been based in California since early 1997. What he thought would be a short-term journey to race in Northern California became a multi-year stay, and Glatt began to have more runners in Southern California in 2000.
“One thing after another happened,” he said. “When I left for the Bay Area in the fall, I thought I’d be going to Emerald for the second year. I got myself going in the Bay Area and had an opportunity to come south. That’s why I never returned.”
Elusive Diva, a multiple graded stakes-winning mare, helped establish Glatt’s reputation in Southern California in 2004-05. Runners such as Collusion Illusion, Dr. Schivel, Dr. Venkman, and Sharp Samurai have won graded stakes in the last decade, with Dr. Schivel beaten a nose in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar.
Glatt, 52, has warm memories of racing in Washington during his youth. He worked with his father, Ron, who had a stable at Longacres, as a teenager and young adult, and Ron is an everyday presence with his son at Santa Anita.
“I’m proud of him,” Ron Glatt said last weekend. “He’s worked hard. This is the only thing he’s wanted to do since he was a kid.”
Longacres closed in 1992, and racing was held at smaller state venues until Emerald Downs opened.
“I grew up going to Longacres,” Mark Glatt said. “It was a great venue and an unbelievable place. When I started training on my own, we were in Yakima while Emerald was being built. We were all looking forward to Emerald.”
Glatt will be inducted into the Hall of Fame along with the late owner Paskey Dedomenico, the multiple stakes-winning Washington-bred Wasserman, and the owner/breeder duo of Ron and Nina Hagen.
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