8/12/2026

(Auburn, WA) This Sunday is Championship Sunday at Emerald Downs featuring the 91st running of the Longacres Mile. Below is the preview the Longacres Mile with a lot of help from Emerald Media Director Vince Bruun.

There are 5 other Stakes races on Sunday and 2 quarter horse Championships on Saturday. The line-ups are all below.

The 91st Longacres Mile

The draw for the 91st Longacres Mile was held on Wednesday and after 19 nominated for the race only 7 of those decided to run. An 8th entry was added with a supplemental nomination.

Coming Home Party

Many of those who nominated may have decided to avoid a collision course with the 7-5 morning line favorite Touchy trained by Wesley Ward. Ward is a Washington state native from Selah and began his career as a jockey at Longacres.  Ward won the 1984 Eclipse award for top apprentice jockey.

Ward would shift to training after his riding career and for all he accomplished in the saddle, his training accomplishments are spectacular. With over 2,500 wins and $108 million in earnings, including 10 leading trainer titles at Keeneland, six Breeders’ Cup victories, and an unprecedented 11 victories at Royal Ascot in England.

Although it wouldn’t be his richest victory, Ward would dearly love like to add the Longacres Mile on to his resume.  “I picked the (Longacres Mile) for Touchy because it’s such an iconic race, especially for anyone from the state of Washington,” Ward said. “I told the owners how much this race means to me. Monetarily it’s not as much as the other races we considered, but I thought we would have a really live chance in here. They realize how much this race means to me.”

Ward not messing around with Touchy

Touchy will be a formidable opponent for the rest of the field. A 4-year-old by 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, Touchy is unraced since a dazzling June 10 allowance victory at Churchill Downs, running a mile on dirt in a blistering 1:33.93. Owned and bred by Three Chimneys Farm, Touchy is 3-3-2 in 10 overall starts including stakes placings at Saratoga, Turfway Park, Pimlico, and Sunland Park. Yedsit Hazlewood, a talented 18-year-old Panamanian, has the mount.

“He’s an uber-talented colt,” Ward said of Touchy. “I thought highly of him from the first time I laid eyes on him, but he just hadn’t really come through for me. He’s got a nice race record, but I kept stressing to the Three Chimneys team that there’s a lot more to this horse than what we’ve seen. In his last race, Jose (Ortiz) took him off the pace and the horse really came through for me. We beat a very good field.”

Several Big Shippers decide to pass

There were several big time runners nominated for the Mile but decided against coming to Auburn. Beginning with last year’s Champion Arrowthegreat. Arrowthegreat partly owned by celebrity chef Brian Malarkey and trained by Dan Blacker. Arrowthegreat took the 90th edition of the Mile with a brilliant ride by Manuel Americano along the rail to pass Clovisconnection in the final 16th to win 2+ lengths.

Others that decided to skip the showdown with Touchy included the Justin Evans’ trained Getaway Car who the ownership had just purchased a few months ago from Bob Baffert. Speaking of Baffert he had two nominated Mirahmadi and Privman and neither are heading north. NW native and recent Washington Hall of Fame inductee Mark Glatt thought about coming home with either Lyell’s Song or Santarena decided against either and will skip a shot at the Mile.

Local Ties

Former Mile Champ Background who has been running well this year at Emerald but at lower levels for trainer Mike Puhich will not run the 1 lap and neither will Bearings who ran 3rd at a big number 30-1 last year.

Who else is in?

There is only one runner from the 10 starters last year back to try again and that is the beloved Slew’s Tiz Whiz. This will be Slew’s 5th straight run in the Mile and won it in 2022. He then finished 3rd back-to-back in 2023 and 2024. Last year was his worst finish of 6th place. Slew is coming off his best run of 2026 winning a 1 mile allowance race on August 1st catching the front running Cap It Daddy in the final strides to win by a neck. Cap It Daddy was nominated to the Mile but also decided to pass.

Trained by two-time Longacres Mile-winning trainer Tom Wenzel, 8-year-old Slew’s Tiz Whiz is a three-time Washington Horse of the Year, two-time Emerald Downs’ Horse of the Meeting, with an overall mark of 13-7-6 in 33 starts with earnings of $435,262. Slew is bidding to become the 5th 8-year-old to win the Mile. 

4-year-old Si That Tiger, trained by Blaine Wright, has been the top older horse this season at Emerald Downs, compiling a 2-1-0 record in three starts, including a dominant gate to wire score in the 6½ furlong Governor’s S. By Smiling Tiger, his overall mark is 7-1-0 in 11 starts with earnings of $166,770 for Gerald and Gail Schneider and John and Janene Maryanski. Si That Tiger has routed just twice, finishing fourth in the 2014 Gottstein Futurity and second in the 2025 Muckleshoot Derby.

The 91st Longacres Mile Field

Here is the field and morning line odds for the 91st Longacres Mile which will be run as the 9th of 12 races with a purse of $125,000.

The rest of Championship Sunday:

6th Race WTBOA Lassies Purse $50,000 6-fur

7th Race WTBOA Lads Purse $50,000 6-fur

8th Race Emerald Distaff Purse $50,000 1 1/16-miles

10th Race Washington Oaks Purse $50,000 1 1/16-miles

11th Race Muckleshoot Derby Purse $50,000 1 1/8-miles

Quarter Horse Championships on Saturday

10th Race AQHA Emerald Downs Championship Purse $40,000 440 yards

11th Race John Deere Emerald Downs Juvenile Challenge Purse $30,000 350 yards

ESN