Washington fans are hopeful that for the first time in Emerald Downs’ history, the reigning colors on the Longacres Mile statue can remain the same.

THE COAST IS CLEAR - by Robert Geller

From the radiant ocean-blue of Australia’s Sunshine Coast to the alpine green of the Pacific Northwest, it is the turquoise and hot-pink striped silks of top racehorse Noosa Beach that has provided the unexpected link between the two distant shores. It is all systems go for the 2010 Washington Horse of the Year who marched a step closer toward the defense of the state’s premier race, the Grade 3 $200,000 Longacres Mile, with a resounding win May 22 in the 72nd running of the $50,000 Governor’s Handicap. His current regional dominance has already created a ripple effect with media down under wanting to ride the tide that could well put their town’s name on the international stage of the 28th Breeders Cup World Championship at Churchill Downs, should it continue.

Ever since star Brisbane jockey Gary Palmer rode the summer of 2002 at Emerald Downs, Doris Harwood, more than any other Washington-based trainer, has remained partial to Australia. Doris took Gary under her wing, providing him lodging in the small self-contained apartment on the farm where she and husband Jeff reside and did the best she could to offer him live mounts that season.

“I just immediately liked him and realized what a good horseman he was. It was the year we only had 20 head and I didn’t get to send them to Reba (Ranch) to condition them for the 30 days prior to the season” – now a routine and proven practice - “because you win races right off the bat instead of needing a race. So I didn’t get to put him on some real live horses straight away.”

Nonetheless, their professional respect developed into a lasting friendship, and three years later Doris and Jeff made the long trip to Queensland to visit him.

“Once you’ve gone to Australia you realize what a wonderful place in the world it is and I just had the most marvelous vacation there. Gary Palmer and his wife Debbie owned a condo on Noosa Beach so we spent the weekend there and we just had a great time. And it was my year to name our horses and so I said when I got home, I have to name a horse Noosa Beach.”

It was the start of a beach-named theme with horses whose careers she launched, Koala Beach, Broulee Beach and Avalon Beach all fine examples that followed.

Noosa Beach opened his current 5-year-old campaign up north at Hastings on April 22 with a cozy one and a half lengths win in the George Royal at 6-1/2 furlongs. The Washington-bred is no stranger to British Columbia, having first competed around the bullring in the 1 1/8-mile BC Derby as a 3-year-old placing a game third. That Derby foreshadowed what followed 11 months later when the top trio renewed their rivalry in the 75th Longacres Mile. It is now history that Noosa Beach blossomed into the best horse on the grounds to defeat the Charles Fipke-owned Jersey Town, subsequent winner of the Grade 1 Cigar Mile over Haynsefield at Aqueduct on Thanksgiving weekend and left former BC Derby winner and one-time stablemate, Winning Machine, in his wake.

This season, regular rider Ricky Frazier remains sidelined with a concussion from a gate incident last fall on the California fair circuit. Doris had no hesitation in calling on Gallyn Mitchell, the state’s all-time leader in number of wins, for the plum job.

“I don’t think he’s a hard horse to ride. He’s just big. Gallyn has so much experience, and it was kind of fun having him ride him the first time back up in Canada around the bullring because Gallyn was raised in Spokane around the bullring. It was a great opportunity for them to get to know each other.”

Officially, the George Royal was their first time to team up, but as Gallyn points out, he and Noosa Beach were already well acquainted.

“People forget that I’d be riding him regularly in track-work all of last season. He is the sort of horse that tells you where he wants to go, just like all class horses do.”

There was no better example of that than in this year’s Governor’s Handicap. Sent off as odds-on favorite, any nagging concerns about drawing the outside post in the 10-horse field were clearly put to rest. Noosa Beach tugged his way to the lead by the quarter pole, blunted the stretch assault from sprint sensation Tequila Gold and cruised in by a length over the late-charging Assessment. It was sweet revenge, turning the tables on the 2009 Longacres Mile champion who had robbed Noosa Beach of a perfect 4-year-old season by a stubborn neck, ironically at the hands of Mitchell.

Having now racked off eight wins from his last nine starts, the last five in a row, one is hard-pressed to find an active horse across the nation that can boast such an outstandingly consistent run. The pressure is on to stay perfect on the road back to the Longacres Mile held Sunday, Aug. 21. His next start will be in the $50,000 Bud-Budweiser Handicap on June 19 at a mile, while the $50,000 Mount Rainier Handicap, July 24 over a mile and a sixteenth awaits There is every indication that it will take something special to beat him.

Emerald Downs opened in 1996 and fans are yet to witness a consecutive mile winner at the oval. Kid Katabatic (1997) Wasserman (2008) and Assessment (2009) ran third, fourth and third respectively their next year. The first two-time Mile winner at Longacres was Amble In (1946, 1948) but only Trooper Seven (1980, 1981) and Simply Majestic (1989, 1990) have the distinction of back-to-back wins and Emerald Downs’ Director of Publicity, Joe Withee, sees similarities in style between that pair and Noosa Beach.

“They are all stalking type horses with tactical speed able to make the move at the right time. Trooper Seven was just a real unique horse. He never lost at a mile, a stalker that never made any mistakes and put his (local) owner/breeder Eugene Zeren on the map. He became a real popular horse. Simply Majestic had a little more natural speed and was an ace miler and was much the best in his first win. That year he even held a world record at a mile and an eighth. The next year he had a grueling campaign. He won a stakes race in Ohio a week prior. He won a bunch of races in his career and acquitted himself well in two Breeders Cups.”

Noosa Beach fits their profile on age as well. Both Trooper Seven and Simply Majestic triumphed at ages four and five. Promising at two and three, Noosa Beach remained winless in route races until June 20, 2010, coincidentally the 14th birthday of Emerald Downs. He has developed again this season.

“He just kept growing and getting bigger and stronger. This year he probably weighs 50 pounds more than he did before and it’s all muscle. At 2, he was like a string bean. I couldn’t feed him enough. He was a late developer at 2 and we didn’t really start him until the end of that season. He had three tough races in a row and for him to survive those was amazing.”

Noosa Beach followed up his first stakes win in the $50,000 Captain Condo with a second to Gallant Son in the 2-year-old championship, the $90,000 Gottstein Futurity. Both Jeff and Doris were ecstatic. Then potential disaster struck.

“I’m taking him home and he’s in the front stall of the two-horse trailer and he kicks one of his back legs through the partition. We knew it was trouble. We stopped, saw blood flying all over. I immediately sent out the emergency phone calls. I’m looking at this 17 hands 2-year-old, and I couldn’t get him out in the middle of the road. I was committed to go to my house. It was the safest. They all came up, from Reba, and Dr. Bergsma. As soon as I opened the partition, he got his own leg out but he had a hole to the bone in his back leg. I didn’t know if it was broken or not but I thought for sure we’d have to put him down.”

To this day, Noosa Beach sports a big scar on the inside of that left hind leg but fortunately the hock, joints and ligaments were all left intact. Doris and her team nursed him back to health to make sure the gaping wound closed up completely.

“All winter long, gallop girl Blair who was working for me at Reba, our son Trevor, Jeff and I worked on that leg three times a day every single day, from the end of September until January. He started to travel well, work well and the area wasn’t infected, but it was not until the end of September, by the end of his 3-year-old campaign, that it had closed up from the inside. It was never an issue again. I owe it to every single horse to look after them like that. Because look at the life they’ve given me. You owe it to them.”

Now at age 5, Noosa Beach appears to have separated himself from the pack.

“I believe horses run to their pedigree, meaning the distance they are capable of. A good horse will break his maiden and can run short. A great horse can break his maiden and continue up the ladder to the distance he is bred to run. And Noosa Beach is bred to run any distance. As far as Jeff is concerned, he is bred three by three to Tom Fool and that is the key to his pedigree. Tom Fool could run fast, go any distance and tack any weight.”

Jeff and Doris both know that a horse like this doesn’t come along every day and had it not been for a twist of fate, perhaps he wouldn’t have. When original plans to put their own broodmare Julia Rose to Tiffany Ice did not pan out, breeders Pam and Neal Christopherson suggested they be the first to try unproven sire Harbor the Gold. No-one could have imagined that they would hit the jackpot on the first spin but that is precisely what happened. Bar C Racing Stables in Hermiston, Ore., now boasts multiple stakes-winners. Harbor the Gold has gone on to produce the last two 2-year-old Washington champions in Hollywood Harbor (2009) and Couldabenthewhisky (2010) and was leading sire of Emerald Downs stakes races won last year with 11.

By Seeking the Gold from Harbor Springs, Harbor the Gold raced nine times, breaking his maiden at Aqueduct as a 2-year-old and scoring at Belmont as a 3-year-old. Both wins were at a mile.

“Overbrook Farm had bred him,” explained Pam, “and Wayne Lukas had him in training but a knee fracture ended his racing career. A friend of ours Bo Davis happened to be working over there and phoned us and said you’ve got to get this horse.”

In five years, his popularity has soared. Having covered only seven mares in 2006, the figure is up to 80 this year with a stud fee of $4,500 as against the mere $1,000 initially. Pam concedes that with Noosa Beach, breeding is part of the equation but credits a lot of his success to Doris.

“She has developed him well. He is lightly raced for a 5-year-old and has been turned out every winter.”

Half-brother Boston Harbor went to the Breeders Cup in 1996 and won, and now Noosa Beach may get his turn. Having watched Dakota Phone snatch victory over Morning Line in the 2010 Breeder’s Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs, it is hard to imagine, given his natural brilliance and turn of foot, Noosa Beach not having been competitive.

“To fork out $230,000 last year was just unrealistic. Sorry but Jeff and I have to work for a living. We want to save for our retirement too. But I know he deserves a shot.”

Drastic reductions from last season’s prohibitive fees have opened the door on the possibility of a Breeders Cup start. Doris could easily have already paid up the $25,000 nomination fee for eligibility this year, but is not one to count her chickens before they hatch and is going race by race.

“It’s not due until June 30. With horses, why not wait? They’re so fragile and there’s another stakes race between now and then. We’ll decide probably June 29.”

Going by her track record, Doris is not one to shy away from the big time. She took Gottstein Futurity winner Smarty Deb to the 2007 Breeders’ Cup at Monmouth Park and he ran a bang-up fifth in the slop. The day prior, Washington-bred sprinter Margo’s Gift stunned the nation with his victory in the $250,000 Favorite trick Breeders’ Cup Stakes, vindicating her decision to take a shot despite initial reluctance from owner Kenny Alhadeff to make the trip.

No doubt, Noosa Beach has a few more bridges to cross between now and November, but there is a sense of anticipation in Washington State like no other about this defending Longacres Mile champion. Everyone accepts that all your ducks have to be lined up in a row, and right now the coast is clear.