7/16/2026

(Grand Prairie, TX) Justin Evans swooped into the tight knit Pacific NW racing community 4 years ago. He quickly put his stamp on his residency in the Evergreen State winning the training title in his first season and defending his title in 2024. In his 3rd season he had another strong season tying for 2nd but well behind new Champion Jorge Rosales.

Opportunity Knocks

In 2026, Evans was approached by a couple of new owners with a lot of stock. Evans told us, “Paradise Equine and Pierre and Leslie Amestoy have been a huge boost to what we were already doing with the many great owners we already work for and it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.”

But it also meant he would need to race in the area they were already racing in the Southwest and a 4th year back at Emerald Downs was not in the cards.

Evans just wrapped up his first season at Lone Star Park on Sunday and we had a chance to see him and talk with him in early June when we were at Lone Star. Evans was facing some heavy hitters at the race track that opened just 10 months after Emerald Downs did in June of 1996.

Lone Star has been somewhat of a sister track to Emerald from the start. We did a story earlier this season on the strangeley similar paths both tracks have taken through their first 30 years. It was part of a larger 30th anniversary story about Emerald. We have copied the Lone Star part of that story at the bottom of this story.

Solid Season in Texas

Back to Evans and his first season at Lone Star. He had to go head-to-head with the winningest trainer in the nation, Steve Asmussen who is #2 in earnings at more than 15-million. Other big time stables at Lone Star included Robertino Diodoro, Danny Pish and Bret Calhoun to name a few. Evans finished 3rd in wins and 8th in earnings. His season at Lone Star was 96 starts with a 19-12-9 record, a 20% win rate and 41% top 3 finish. Evans says he was happy with the win rate but always wants that higher of course but needs that top 3 percent to go up. “There’s always work to do” said Evans.

By comparison, Asmussen won his 19th straight training title at Lone Star and started 220 going 37-39-49 with a 17% win rate and 57% top 3. Evans was tied for 5th in starts with two others at 96. His earnings checked in at $426,275.

Up Next

Evans is now shipping most of his ready runners to Remington park in Oklahoma City. He also is going to ship some to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Following those meets he plans on being at Zia Park in New Mexico for their meet beginning on Halloween and racing through mid-December. He is also looking at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico and Turf Paradise in Phoenix. 

Emerald Downs return

Evans says he and his family loved their time at Emerald Downs and actually are still here. Evans has a few horses he left with trainer Howie Gibson including a pretty good one in Subtle Shimmer owned by Ty Leatherman and his daughter Addison. Subtle Shimmer will be racing on Sunday in the Kent Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going a mile. Adrian Castellanos gets the ride. Evans says they’ll be watching from afar. 

Gibson says he’s got 4 of Evans horses now on the grounds and is excited to see his friend come back for Championship weekend. Gibson is planning on stabling at Turf Paradise over the winter and has had discussion with Evans that if he decides not to stable at TP that Gibson is open to taking any that he wants to ship to Phoenix.

August return with an Eye on the Longacres Mile

Evans is coming back to the NW in August for Championship weekend on the 15th and 16th. Evans says his owner Paradise Equine just acquired Getaway Car a former Bob Baffert horse that has nearly 700k in earnings. Getaway Car was in position to take a shot at the 2025 Kentucky Derby but an injury took away that chance to run for the roses. He has another one he is considering as well. He got Subtle Shimmer a potential Oaks runner and is planning on bringing up his son Austin’s horse Saint Benji also part owned by Leatherman, to run in the Muckleshoot Derby.

Evans says he is so appreciative of his time at Emerald and how the NW race-trackers welcomed him and his family to their community. He says they all are missing their annual trek to Auburn especially with some of the heat issues the rest of the country is dealing with. He hopes and wants to continue to support racing in the NW. He remains hopeful a solution to raising the purse account can be found and if so he says he can’t imagine him not having stock to ship to Emerald or left open the possibility of sending enough for the season.

Evans says his time at Lone Star opened his eyes to the real struggles Emerald Downs has been dealing with in trying to find a solution to raising purses with what Lone Star has been going through. More on the similarities is below in our bonus content.

Final Thoughts  

Evans is excited about his future and knows that the racing industry is going through some difficult times and truly wants to let his friends at Emerald Downs know that these issues are at all tracks and this is not just an Emerald Downs problem. He said Emerald was lucky to have a group of investors that wanted to save racing in the first place and then to have the Muckleshoot Tribe takeover who clearly want the track to succeed. 

Evans says in many other parts of the country Emerald Downs probably would have already been shut down. So he was very thankful for the Tribe’s support. He also said the fans in the NW are not like anywhere else.

He noted at Lone Star they would have some big days but many days there are fewer than 1.500 people on track. He said it was amazing to see every day and night of racing at Emerald there is always a buzz, always a good crowd and made it fun and something to look forward to coming to work each day.

Surprsinglyperfect

Our last question was about the amazing Surprsinglyperfect who captured the heart of many Emerald downs fans over the past few years. Surprsinglyperfect first ran at Emerald Downs as a 10-year-old in 2024. He ran 7 times won 4, placed once and showed once. His only off the board finish was 8th place in the 2024 Longacres Mile.

In 2025, Surprsinglyperfect started 5 times and won 3 and showed once and placing 5th. His Emerald Downs record was 12 7-1-2 for a 58% win clip and an 83% trifecta finish. His last win was August 22, 2025 at Emerald Downs with his regular rider Kevin Krigger. Evans and Rakoczy Racing owned him for most of his Emerald starts. He ran one race in 2026 at Turf Paradise as a 12-year-old and finished 2nd. His final career numbers are 101 28-18-15 for a career 28% win percent and 60% top 3 finish and earned more than 400k.

Evans says he simply fell in love with this guy and he’s not done yet. Perfect is in training to become a pony horse. Evans says, “he just bring such a positive energy to the barn and he misses being at the track.” Evans says, “I am really excited about having him back in the barn and that his training is going well.” Evans was thankful to have the chance to keep him and can’t wait to have him back with the family.

Catching up with Justin Evans at Lone Star

Bonus Story: Emerald Downs and Lone Star Park sister tracks

Emerald’s Sister Track

Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, near Dallas opened their doors 10 months after Emerald Downs. Both tracks began nearly at the same time and both tracks have had a remarkedly similar journey to their 30th year.

We were in Texas earlier this month and we got out to Lone Star Park on Friday, June 12th. I had reached out to the media contact about coming down and wanting to talk with someone about Lone Star’s first 30 years and to compare notes between the two tracks.

The first thing that is very noticable is the physical structure of the tracks main building is very similar. The biggest difference is the size. Lonestar has a paddock behind the main building and they come out in a tunnel under the building to the track.

The Grandstand has more floors than Emerald but much of it is indoors with climate control. There are 7 or 8 floors at Lonestar. Lonestar also has a grassy area toward the top of the stretch like Emerald’s park area but they have their simulcast betting building in that area as well so they don’t have to open the main large facility for non-live racing days.

When we arrived, and we had been there years ago, but got our bearings and noticed a similar pre-race show that Joe Withee and Tom Harris do with their track announcer, Jim Byers and Rodney Nelson. After they were done I approached Jim Byers and introduced myself, we had a great discussion but he had to go do his announcing duties and put me in touch with Rodney Nelson.

Rodney met me at the winner’s circle and set us up in a great box right on the finish line on the 2nd floor. We talked about both tracks and the similar path both have taken.

Similarities

Although not exact but Lone Star began from a vote of the people to create the facility through a Sports Authority and to lease it to an outside operator.

Emerald Downs began as NW Racing Associates but did not own the physical land either and leased it.

In 2011 the original owners of Lone Star had to declare bankruptcy and the operations were purchased by Global Gaming Solutions which is financially backed by the Chickasaw tribal nation. They saw the 47-million dollar price tag as a bargain at the time.

NW Racing Associates did not go through a bankruptcy but trying to dig out from the intiial investment was a slow process with the investors interested in letting someone else take over after nearly 20 years of operation.

This is when Ron Crockett made the deal with the Mucklshoot tribe who had already purchased the property and now would be sole owner of the whole operation.

Slot Machine Revenue

Both tracks, with tribal interests or ownership were hopeful of being able to add slot machines at the tracks to help the purse accounts for racing. This had saved or bailed out many tracks across the country where states had made a deal with their tribes to allow slot machines at tribal casino’s but a percentage would go to race tracks to help keep their purses up and mitigate the impact slot machines were having on the distribution of the gambling dollar.

However, the ultra conservative nature of Texas politics haven’t even allowed tribes to have any casinos let alone slot machines. Talking with Lone Star officials there doesn’t seem to be much movement for that to happen any time soon.

Emerald Downs faced a similar issue when tribe’s were allowed to add slot machines  but with no mitigation to any businesses that may be impacted by slots which included not only horse racing but taverns and bars that offered pull tabs and punch boards or other gambling options.

Neither track has ever gotten one penny of direect slot machine revenue to help keep their purses up to help the racing industry.

New Idea’s

Lone Star decided that waiting around for any tribal gambling is likely a lost cause in Texas so what could they do to help stabalize the racing industry? This is when they came up with the idea of sharing the sales tax on equine or Ag products.

Texas like Washington is a sales tax based economy. Texas racing supporters put up a bill that would divert a percent of all sales tax collected on equine and Ag products to go direct to the racing industry to use as they needed to stabalize the industry. This immediately gave the purse accounts a shot in the arm they needed and purses went up to competitive levels.

Emerald Downs supporters attempted multiple ideas to work with the State legislature to do a similar program where a percent or specific amount would be raised through equine and Ag product sales. The first year it was sent through the House of Representatives it sailed through with a near perfect vote and Governor Inslee had indicated public support for the bill.

But in the Senate, the chair of the Ways and Means committee that brings bills to the floor for final votes was not in favor of the bill. She knew the bill would pass if it was brought up for a vote and so decided not to call the bill and it died. The Bill was attempted again the following year but the same chair was in place so again it had no chance and wasn’t even called to the floor.

There is a new chair of the Ways and Means committee but with state of the current budget it is not the best time to ask to divert money away from the legislature.

HISA issues

The happiness and relief of the bill in Texas was short lived when the Federal government passed a bill from Mitch McConnell and signed into law by Donald Trump in 2020. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act created a new level of bureaucracy at the Federal level and to fund it, the money was to come from the industry.

This meant each track would be given a bill for their share of funding HISA operations. This impacts both tracks who were already behind the many tracks that collected revenue from slot machines and now another bill and not a small one they have to pay and then abide by all their new rules and regulations.

If you didn’t then you would be banned from selling your signal outside of your state so bettors in other states could not wager on your races.

Lone Star decided the amount they were being charged to comply was not worth the amount they would get by selling their signal so they have not paid the HISA fees and is the reason we cannot wager on Lone Star races at Emerald Downs.

We were told by Lone Star officials that the amount they would be charged would equal the amount they would get back so it didn’t make sense to them to simply break even while adding a lot of new regulations that horsemen and staff would have to follow and allow HISA inspectors carte blanche access to their facility.

Lone Star is sticking to their position and waiting to see where all the lawsuits currently working their way through the courts end up and if there is any change in the current federal laws.

Emerald’s additional fees

Emerald Downs has their own issues with additional fees and they include not only paying the large HISA fees which they have chosen to do but Emerald Downs or I should say, horse racing is overseen by the State Racing Commission. When horse racing and paramutuel wagering was approved back in 1933 one of the caveats was the industry would pay for their own oversight.

This was shared for many years by Longacres, Yakima Meadows, Playfair and all the county fair meets that used to run. The commission was there to be the arbiter of any disputes between the racing entities. But now there is only one left, Emerald Downs and they have to pay the whole bill.

Between paying for the State Commission and HISA fees it cost the track between 1.5 and 2 million dollars a year. This is direct money that could go into multiple projects such as a turf course or renovations or straight to the purse account to raise the purses and attract more horses and horse people to the Northwest for summer racing.

Still Here

What’s amazing is I believe these two tracks are still the newest tracks built from an empty lot to the facilities they are now or certainly only  few other actual new tracks, not revonated, but actual new tracks have been built since. On the other hand we can’t stop counting the tracks that have been shuttered.

Both Emerald Downs and Lone Star have never been given anything to keep their industries alive in their states until Lone Star got the sales tax revenue bill. Emerald Downs has never taken a penny of help from the legislature or any government entity. They were not allowed to add other gambling options to help support their business. They were denied by one person of sharing in some of the tax revenue that is spent on supporting their business.

Yet with the leadership of the original investors and the support and now leadership from the Muckleshoot tribe Emerald Downs keeps attracting hundreds of thousands of fans each racing season. They offer the best professional sports entertainment value from a $10 admission charge to far cheaper menu options from the concession stands not including the many special offers run on many of the race days to a family friendly atmosphere with a gorgeous park area with free kids events like bouncy toys to pony rides.

Lone Star Park has also followed similar paths and have figured out how to survive. Both tracks refuse to give in and keep searching for ways to do more than survive.

I can’t speak for the horse people at Lone Star other than they certainly have some loyal and powerful folks who believe in Lone Star such as trainer’s Steve Asmussen, Bret Calhoun and Danny Pish which shows they may have horses at other and bigger tracks but Lone Star is home and they are committed to be part of Lone Star as long as the gates are still open.

You can say the same at Emerald Downs. No doubt the grit of our NW racing community is as strong and dedicated as any in the world. We’ve had plenty of challenges thrown at this group but yet 30 years later they are still here.

The stubborness and will is second to none in our corner of the world. Will we ever find a final answer to help stabalize this industry and help re-grow the horse population, the breeding industry, the number of races and race days that can be offered? It is hard to say. But if anyone thinks we can’t, I wouldn’t take that bet.

As frustrating as these challenges can be, it is worth the time and effort to preserve this great sport and industry that so many people love. Horse racing in Washington state especially in the summer has been a tradition that has now been passed down and onto multiple generations.

Emerald Downs and Lone Star couldn’t be further apart politically than any two states. But maybe we are so far apart that we are actually closer than we understand because those often repeated differences are pounded away repeatedly.

If we look at the crazy similar 30 years of both tracks, I think we’re closer than we think.

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