As I See It- Thursday, April 28

BY MATT DINERMAN

After this week, we will already be 14% finished with our 20th anniversary season. Time is already going by fast! We have seen some stakes runners shine in their 2016 debuts and plenty of close finishes. Luckily for us, the great racing is just beginning! 
Over the off-season, I reflected about the four months spent working at Emerald Downs in 2015. What can I improve on? What can I do to get involved with meeting more people and learning more about the Washington racing community? These are the kinds of questions that popped into my head. Well, there are plenty of new things that I have done this year to meet more people and get even more involved in the community. So far, things are going great. We have a wonderful group of people here who are passionate, innovative and eager to improve our sport!
One of the things I have tried to strengthen, with regards to race commentary, is my vocabulary. To do this, I made a book, with lots of words and phrases. My motto is to not script races: 99% of the time, what you hear from me is what comes to me in the moment. That said, it’s good to be able to look through the book and practice using different phrases. I have a dictionary in my booth as well, and read articles and books when I can. All of this has helped me expand my vocabulary.
We’ve got our second FAB Friday of the season tomorrow and if you managed to pick up a FAB Friday T-shirt last Friday, then you’ll get free admission just for wearing the shirt this Friday (and all other future Friday evening race cards!) 7 races tomorrow, 9 on Saturday, and 10 on Sunday. The horsemen are getting their horses more and more fit, and the field sizes are going to increase very soon, with close to 200 horses shipping in from Arizona in the next couple of weeks!
The fun is just beginning. Let’s have a great Week 4 of racing at our gem of a track, Emerald Downs!
 ***The Kentucky Oaks is next Friday. Jack Carlino (Equine Business Major at Louisville), Jose Santos Jr. (Jockey Agent and son of Hall of Fame rider Jose Santos), Cody Caudill (Jockey Agent) and I do a weekly show called The Kings Court, discussing and analyzing various races, horses, and thoroughbred industry topics (in fact…..the three-year-old KINGS COURT made his debut for the Chris Stenslie barn at Emerald last weekend! Jack, Cody, and Jose tuned in from Louisville to watch him!)
This week, we discussed many of the contenders in this year’s Kentucky Oaks. If you’d like another opinion on these runners, here is the link to the video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ha1-5lVD9A
We will be posting a Kentucky Derby video on Tuesday night or Wednesday, and that link will be posted on next week’s blog.***