Ken Graham: From the Publisher

Or is it, Failure Breeds Success? According to historical records, horse racing was introduced to Waitsburg (or Waitsburg was introduced to horse racing, depending on how you look at it) in 1913. The town's racing campaign, held each year on the third weekend of May, has been known for most of that time as "Days of Real Sport."

Horse racing had a good run in Waitsburg, and in other small towns in eastern Washington, including Dayton and Walla Walla. But by last year's 100th anniversary of DRS, the run had ended. For many reasons, it's become clear that pari-mutuel racing will not be returning to our area.

But since a centennial is a terrible thing to waste, in 2013 a dedicated group of folks in Waitsburg put together a new event called Waitsburg Celebration Days, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Days of Real Sport.

And so, out of the DRS ashes rose a new event that will be held this weekend - the third weekend in May - and hopefully for a hundred more years, at least.

Last year's WCD was a big success. It included ongoing events, like the antique auto show and the Main Street Parade. A New event, which was a big hit, was the show at the fairgrounds, featuring Frog Hollow Band. It was reported that more than 400 people showed up.

Animals were featured prominently in WCD, including Cowgirl Ranch Horse Racing, dog trials and kids' events like goat tail tying and mutton busting.

This year's WCD will include most of those things and more. (You can find a complete schedule on the back page of this paper.)

The many volunteers who are putting in hundreds of hours to make this year's Waitsburg Celebration days another success should be honored by us all. I'd name them, but I'd run out of room, and then I'd undoubtedly still leave deserving names out.

I urge all of our readers, even those who don't live in Waitsburg, to come to town next weekend and be part of Waitsburg Celebration Days and the 101st anniversary celebration of Days of Real Sport.