Months After Winning Equestrian Race, Grandson Highlights Famed Grandfather’s 90-Year-Old Legacy

The 88th edition of the prestigious $150,000 Longacres Mile stake is to be held on 13th August at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington. Last-time winner and reigning champion  Slew’s Tiz Whiz is the favorite with 9-5  for a one-mile race. Another horse the local favorite is on the verge of making by finishing the race in the top three for the fourth time.

Five Star General has odds of 2-1 coming to the event months after winning $100,000 Evangeline Downs Mile is owned by the grandson of Joe Gottstein, the founder of Longacres. The grandson Ken Alhadeff feels nostalgic about the equestrian race and reflects on the long history of his family’s association with the Longacres track. If Five Star General wins, it will be Ken’s first win at Longacres Mile.

Grandson reflects on the 90-year-old equestrian legacy

In 2022 after the death of Glenn Todd the former owner of Five Star General, his horses were auctioned. In that auction, Ken Alhadeff purchased Five Star General for $110,000. Now, the 7-year-old horse who has a history at Longacres Mile is set to participate for the first time for the new owner he brings back the memories of the legacy Ken’s grandfather left behind.  Joe Gottstein established Longacres in 1933. In 1935 he started by offering $10,000 to the winner of the one-mile thoroughbred race. Reflecting on the decision Ken says, “He was smart enough to realize he needed a marquee race. He needed something that gave his track an identity“.

It was the richest race of that distance in the whole country at that time and thus, the Longacres Mile was established as the biggest sporting event of summer for nearly a century. In 1988, Ken Alhadeff’s family sold the track to Boeing. The race track was closed in 1992, after which it was restarted in 1996 by Emerald Downs. Ken appreciates what the Emerald Downs has done for the race.

He says, “We had an amazing run at that amazing track, and that’s whole another story but it’s the understanding of the legacy of the race, the history of racing in the state of Washington, what that race has meant to that history“. Ken Alhadeff now wishes to create another history by winning the race and carrying the equestrian legacy of his grandfather at Longacres Miles. Five Star General will be ridden by famed jockey Joe Bravo on Sunday’s race.

Five Star General equestrian race journey

Five Star General is the son of Distorted Humor and Party of Interest. The seven-year-old horse is trained by Grant Foster. After Ken Alhadeff brought the horse he moved him to the barn of his long-time trainer Doris Harwood. When Harwood retired she recommended Foster to Alhadeff and connected immediately. The trainer Foster thinks the horse is in the form at this age and he will train him in no different way.  The horse has won stakes in Maryland, Newyork, Louisiana, and British Columbia and is in the best form of his career.

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Five Star General finished second at Longacres Mile in 2020 and third in 2021 and 2022. In his entire career, he has had 29 starts in which he won 9 races and secured second position in 5 and in 6 races. This year he started in three races and won in one and placed second in the other two. His total career earning is $520,269 to date.

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