If Emerald Downs is anything, it is one thing – a family affair. Two of the top trainers and horses set to go to post Sunday in the 81st running of the Grade 3 Longacres Mile have deep family roots in the Washington racing.

Trainers Chris Stenslie and Blaine Wright, both residence of South King County near Enumclaw, learned from their parents who were jockeys and trainers at Longacres and Emerald Downs.

Stenslie conditioned 4-year-old gelding O B Harbor, owned by Jody Peetz, One Horse Will Do Corporation, who is expected to be one of the top betting choices Sunday in the Mile. He has won all four starts at Emerald Downs this year including three stakes – the Governor’s, Budweiser and Mount Rainier.

Wright will enter Alert Bay, a 5-year-old California bred with earnings of $1,127,815 and a win this year in the San Francisco Handicap Grade 3 at Golden Gate Fields.

All I Ever Wanted to Do

Stenslie said she learned the art and craft of training thoroughbred race horses from her mother Alana Gott. Her mother galloped horses in the mornings, rode as a jockey for a short time before finally turning to a career training thoroughbreds.

Stenslie followed in her mother’s footsteps as a trainer. She exercises her horses in the mornings, just as her mother did.

“When she couldn’t gallop her own horses anymore because of her back it took the fun out it for her,” Stenslie said. “That’s when she left it.”

Stenslie said she was riding her mother’s pony horses before she was 10 years old, and what she is doing today, “is all I ever wanted to do.” She has been training for more that 20 years. Stenslie did take time off when her son Jeremy and twin daughters Hailey and Amanda were born. Once the children reached school age, she returned to her other home at the track.

Stenslie said she relies on her ability to gallop the horses, getting a clear feel for how the horse is moving and striding.

She said it has helped her with O B Harbor because he is a big shouldered and long striding thoroughbred, who can get soar when he runs.

“He’s a thick horse and he can get body sore,” she said. “At 2 I knew he was a very nice individual, but he was heavy. I knew at the time he was going to be fast.”

To keep O B Harbor comfortable and happy she provides chiropractic treatments for him and thermal blanket treatments. She said from the beginning he was a very “kind horse and easy to break.” Now that he is 4 years old Stenslie said he is, “more balanced and carries himself better. I am really surprised and happy with him.”

O B Harbor was purchased from the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association Summer Yearling & Mixed Sale for $18,500 and the Oregon bred had earned $133,191 from 11 starts with a 6-1-2 record.

Recipe for success

Wright path to track is similar to Stenslie and many others on the backside of the race track.

He dad, Richard Wright was very successful jockey before turning to training in at Longacres Park in Renton in 1975 and Emerald Downs. Richard Wright still ranks in wins all time at Emerald Downs.

Blaine Wright began working with his father in 1994. It was a true family operation. His mother, Susan, ran the barn and “she was the driving force,” he said.

Wright said he was born in Renton in 1974 and was raised on the backside of Longacres.

“My folks surrounded me with good horsemen,” he said. “I watched the older trainers and my dad.”

His dad and mother retired and now live in Yakima, he the family business is still alive and well.

“I talk to my dad everyday,” he said. “We talk about the horses.”

Wright did leave the training side of the track for about five years, from 2000 to 2005. He joined the sheet metal workers union during those years, but he kept one foot on the track, working on the gate crew. He never quite left. In 2006 returned as trainer and he has never looked back.

There is plenty for them to talk about with Alert Bay poised to reel in a Mile win.

“This is the signature race in the Northwest and we want to make a shot at it,” Wright said.

Since he began training Wright has racked up an impressive resumé of wins including Hudson Landing, winning two grade 3 races at Golden Gate, and multiple stakes winner Gadget Queen.

He attributes his success to, “good owners who buy good horses, and I have a good staff. We are all on the same wavelength and and it puts me in a position to win.”

The final ingredient in Wrights recipe for success is a family that showed him the way to the winner’s circle.