AUBURN — There is family love, for sure, although the bond between Dean and Charles Essex exceeds even the usual affections of a father and son.
In addition, there is a shared passion for thoroughbred horses, and it has wrapped itself around both their lives and livelihoods.
Dean Essex has been a veterinarian for nearly 50 years, and with his wife Anne has owned the Granite Falls Thoroughbred Farm for 30 years. “Horses,” he said, “have been a big part of my life, all my life.”
Charles Essex, who graduated from Granite Falls High School in 1983, has spent his adult life working at tracks along the West Coast, and in recent years has been a successful trainer at Auburn’s Emerald Downs. “I just enjoy being around horses,” he said.
When the two men get together, “we do a little bit of family talk, but we always talk on and off about horses,” Charles Essex said. “There’s no way around it.”
Dean Essex, who grew up around ranches in New Mexico and Arizona, received a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Michigan State University in 1961. He and his wife lived in Nevada for several years, where they raised Charles and a daughter Nancy.
It was in Nevada where Charles Essex was first on horseback. “I was 2 or 3,” he said. “I don’t remember it, but I’ve seen pictures.”
The farm in Granite Falls, which Dean and Anne purchased in 1979, covers 90 acres — they own 45 and lease another 45 — and is home to around 40 horses. He also has several animals at Emerald Downs, under his son’s care as they prepare for the 2009 racing season.
There is, Dean Essex said, a twofold trick to raising top thoroughbreds — good heredity and good upbringing.
“You want to get the best blood you can,” he explained. “And then you try not to let the horse have a bad experience with man or with anything. You don’t want them to have fears because horses are just like people. If they get fears, then the things they’re afraid of are very real to them.
“You can’t take care of a horse part of the time. You have to take care of them all the time.”
At some point, his horses get a chance to run and then maybe to race. The best prospects, he said, are the ones with both the talent and the desire to excel.
“Horses really have to like (racing) to be good,” he said. “They’re the kinds of horses that win by a nose all the time because they enjoy it. … They have to like what they’re doing, and you can’t tell if they’re going to like it until they get doing it.”
The business of raising horses can be lucrative, but more often “it is very hard just to keep your head above water,” he went on. “There’s damn little science to it. You just do the best you can with what you got. And have to have a little bit of luck, no matter how good you are.”
There are always deep-pocket investors prowling around, he said, “and they’ll spend a ton of money for some of these horses. They might spend $100,000, and then we come along and beat them with a little home-bred. That’s a lot of fun.”
The most successful horse Dean Essex owned is Kisstheboysgoodby, which earned around $139,000. “But I’ve raised an awful lot of other horses for other people,” he said.
Among them, Military Hawk, which is the second-winningest horse in Washington history with almost $686,128 in earnings. Another big winner reared on the Granite Falls farm was Cadet Stevens, which ranks 12th with earnings of $453,539.
While Dean Essex has been making his mark in Washington thoroughbred racing as a breeder and owner, his 45-year-old son has been doing the same as a trainer. A year ago Charles Essex, who now lives in Sumner, finished sixth among Emerald Downs trainers with 35 wins in 185 starts. His earnings of $309,979 ranked seventh.
With 28 horses in his stables, he is at the track most days before 5 a.m., overseeing feeding, medical treatments and hours of on-track workouts.
“I very rarely take a day off,” Charles Essex said. “The only times I do is if I’m out of town, and that’s usually to go see a horse somewhere.”
With luck, he gets an afternoon or two off during the week, but even then he is often in the company of horses. He enjoys going trail riding in the mountains and spending time with his 3-year-old daughter. “She’s already riding,” he said proudly.
The best part of his job, not surprisingly, comes on race days. “It’s the winning,” he said. “That’s the key. That’s why you’re here. For the Ws.”
Being a trainer is not all joy, of course. Charles Essex has a staff to manage, owners to please and his own high expectations to meet.
But the most difficult thing, he said, “is when you sometimes hurt a horse.” When that happens — and it does, inevitably, because horse racing can be a harsh, punishing sport — “it’s hard to get out of bed the next morning. It’s just tough to take.”
Fortunately, those incidents are infrequent. On most days, he said, “I don’t have any trouble waking up in the morning and I don’t drag my feet going to work. I wake up and I go.”
For Dean Essex, there is obvious satisfaction in his own career. Likewise, he finds considerable pleasure in the accomplishments of his son.
“It’s something that everybody would like to have,” he said. “The chance to see your kid follow you along and then surpass the hell out of you. And that’s what Charles has done. I’d been around the racetrack all my life, but I was around cheap horses because we were poor as snakes.
“But Charles has worked with some pretty decent horses. And he’s really good at what he does.”
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