With Or Without You

WAITSBURG – A group of Waitsburg com­munity leaders is determined not to let the 100th anni­versary of the Days of Real Sport go unnoticed or, better yet, make the third weekend in May a full-fledged horse- centered extravaganza with or without the return of pari- mutuel racing.

“We’re just getting off the ground,” Waitsburg Mayor Walt Gobel said about the group that met for the first time on Dec. 17 to plan for the 2013 DRS commemo­rative festivities. “But I’m really excited about it. There are a lot of good ideas.”

The next meeting is sched­uled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 7, at the Waitsburg Busi­ness Center on Preston Ave.

With tentative proposals floated so far for the May 17 weekend, the Days of Real Sport could look as follows: A cowgirl/cowboy dance at the Town Hall on Main Street on Friday night; the Waits­burg Parade on Main and Classic Auto Show in Preston Park on Saturday morning; Waitsburg Shopping Bag in Preston Park and Historical Society activities throughout the day on Saturday; barrel racing, cowgirl races, mutton busting, sack races, fair court vs fair court races and so on at the fairgrounds on Sunday.

“The goal is to make it an extremely busy family weekend,” said Gobel, who is among those in the com­munity looking beyond the 2013 anniversary celebration to secure a horse-centered event well into the future.

Not only would that ap­proach allow the Days of Real Sport to evolve and continue, it would also lead to improvements to the fair­grounds and make the facil­ity better suited to possibly host other events during the year - all without closing the door on a reintroduction of the gambling kind of horse racing on which the third weekend in May has been centered.

The first planning meet­ing included representatives from the Days Of Real Sport, Waitsburg Historical Society, Waitsburg Commercial Club, Waitsburg City Council and the Blue Mountain Rural Conservation & Develop­ment Council, also based in Waitsburg.

The latter, led by Lisa Naylor, is seeking grants to make improvements to the fairgrounds: $5,000 from Union Pacific and $5,000 from Pacific Corp. If successful, those grants would cover the bulk of the repairs to the grand stands and other fairgrounds facilities in preparation of the big weekend.

McKinley, whose organiza- tion reportedly sits on a cash reserve set aside for the possible return of traditional DRS thor- oughbred horse racing, said his group would pitch in to maintain the fairgrounds parking lot and paint the grand stands, according to the minutes from the meeting.

Gobel said barrel racing is on an upswing in the Northwest and Darlene Dozier, who sug- gested them, said they would be a major draw. Organizers are looking into alterations to the infield (removing some of the grass) to accommodate such races.

Waitsburg’s love affair with horses and horse-related events goes back to the town’s very early days.According to a Times column by Bettie Chase, Waits- burg “always had a “thing” about horses ever since it was first settled in the 1850s.”

Horses supplied the power, which has made this a success- ful farming community. The city purchased about 15 acres south of town in 1893 and made it a city park. A race track was developed in 1901 for the use of the Waitsburg Driving As- sociation, allowing a time for early morning testing of favorite trotting horses.

Horse shows were first held on Main Street until 1909, when the Waitsburg Horse Racing Association was formed, Chase noted in her column. At that time, the shows were combined with the thoroughbred racing.

“Bleachers were erected on the east side of the track that would seat 600. The grand stand on the west side of the track was built in 1930. The name “Days of Real Sport” came into use in 1922 with the adoption of a cartoon by the same name that appeared daily in the Spokane Spokesman Review,” she wrote.

Horse races have shared other events over the years. There were chuck wagon races, chariots, trotters, Shetland ponies, bar- rel races, relays, Roman riders, grudge contests (my horse is better than yours) and always the shoe shuffle, according to Chase.