It's not all horse play for Sharon Ross

AUBURN — "Watch out for that filly; she's a little bouncy," Sharon Ross warned a visitor. "You have to follow right behind me."

Following Ross can be taxing.

One of the top trainers at Emerald Downs, Ross is in constant motion during mornings at the racetrack. In a span of a half-hour, Ross made two trips from her barn to the racetrack — where some of her horses were working out — inspected several horses and chatted with a couple of grooms and exercise riders. All while finding time to thoughtfully tell her life story.

"It's the lifeguard in me," she said. "I did it for several years, and I got used to being able to watch everything that was going on around me all at once."

With 50 horses to tend to, that ability comes in handy for the 49-year-old Ross, one of the most successful and respected trainers at the Auburn track.

"I guess that's why I never had kids," Ross said. "After dealing with these guys [horses] all day long, I couldn't go home to that."

Patience pays off

Ross has a reputation as a conservative trainer who will not over-race her horses. It is a style that has worked. She entered the season ranked sixth in all-time Emerald victories, with 270, and fifth in earnings by horses she trained, at $3,237,467.

"I probably will never be the leading trainer [in victories], just because I don't run my horses that way," Ross said. "I don't run a lot of 2-year-olds. What we're trying to do is build a solid group of horses year after year after year.

"I would never run a horse I have a question about. You could kill somebody out there, besides the horse."

Ross is particularly patient with young horses.

"I have the vets come in to look at the 2-year-olds between workouts just to make sure they're handling things," she said. "And the 2-year-olds who aren't handling it go home and come back as good 3-year-olds. I like horses to last to 8, 9 or 10 — that are still sound and run competitively. I don't like to burn the barn out racing them too hard at 2 or 3. Racehorses can compete for a long time if you take care of them."

Ross, who two Sundays ago won the Seattle Handicap with Starbird Road at 16-1, is the only woman among the top 10 all-time trainers at Emerald Downs. Still, Ross said there are many more women trainers than when she began.

"For a long time, women weren't even allowed on the racetrack," Ross said. "It was strictly a man's world out here. At first, it was a little hard there, breaking into a man's world. But we've all made our way, and I feel I can compete in this situation as well as anyone, whether it's against a man or woman.

"I am a good trainer, not just a good woman trainer."

A trainer in the making

Many trainers are born into the horse-racing business. Ross married into it.

A double major in art and art history who graduated with honors from Western Maryland, Ross spent her first two college summers as a lifeguard and swimming coach. But after her junior year, she took a job as a waitress close to a racetrack.

One day, she waited on a young trainer named Larry Ross.

"He told me what he did, and I really loved animals so I thought that was kind of interesting," she said.

Interesting enough that she accepted his invitation to join him at Pimlico Race Track outside Baltimore.

"That was the first place I went with Larry, and his horse won a race," she said. "He bet $10 on it for me to win, so that worked out well."

The couple married a year later, in 1979, and moved to Seattle that autumn.

"It was like, 'Go West, Young Man,' " Sharon Ross said. "There was more opportunity for a young guy to get started out here."

By the mid-1980s, Larry Ross, with Sharon's help, had become one of the area's most successful trainers.

"I learned everything I know from Larry," she said. "He is the best horseman I have ever known. We each might have different ideas, but they are always based on good horsemanship."

She became a licensed exercise rider in the early 1980s, learning on a horse the couple trained, Chum Salmon. In August 1985, in one of the most memorable horse races in state history, Chum Salmon rallied from 15 lengths back to win the $250,000 Longacres Mile. He was the only Washington-bred in a race full of California invaders.

Last winter, after enjoying his retirement on the Ross farm in Auburn, Chum Salmon died at 25. Other former stakes horses, including some stars from Longacres in Renton, are still enjoying life on the farm.

The cost of success

When Longacres closed in 1992, the Rosses continued their winning ways in the business, but it came at a price.

Larry moved to Northern California, where he trained a stable of horses, while Sharon stayed in Washington.

"That part wasn't a lot fun," said Sharon, who replaced her husband as the trainer of record at Emerald Downs in 1998 and was the earnings leader that year. "For almost 15 years, to run the business and keep the clients happy, Larry was pretty much living in California, coming home whenever he could, and I was living here, keeping the farm going and doing the training here."

Larry Ross would try to come home twice a month, and for two to three months in the summer. But it was always dependent on what the horses were doing. Last fall, Larry stayed home, going into what Sharon called semi-retirement.

With the Emerald Downs season lasting until mid-October last year, their horses received a break instead of going to California to race.

"For the first time in 15 years, Larry and I got to spend the winter together," she said. "The purses are getting better here, and we've got a schedule kind of worked out where the majority of the horses can go home, rest up on the farm and come back here fresh when the meet starts. We don't really have to go to California right now."

A good life

Sharon Ross tries to take Mondays off during the racing season, but it's a seven-day-a-week job during the offseason. It's a lot of work, but she isn't complaining.

"It's been a good living for us, a very enjoyable way of life," she said. "We've got a beautiful piece of property because of racing, so racing has been very good to us."

Sharing space at the farm with the Thoroughbreds are a miniature horse, several dogs, peacocks and even a pot-bellied pig. Ross envisions a time when she will have a lot more time at the farm.

"I think I will do this about another 10 years before I retire," Ross said. "I like horse racing, but I am not going to do this until I die."

Scott Hanson: 206-464-2943 or shanson@seattletimes.com