Spokane horse trainer Tim McCanna closing in on another milestone

Tim McCanna, who has won more thoroughbred races than any other trainer in Pacific Northwest history, will soon reach another career milestone.

With two more victories, the Spokane native will pass legendary California conditioner Charlie Whittingham for 62nd place on U.S. racing’s all-time list. McCanna saddled two more winners last weekend, giving him nine in the last eight racing days at Golden State Racing’s fall meet in Pleasanton, Calif.

McCanna, already a member of the Washington Racing Hall of Fame, has 2,532 winners. Needing only an additional two for 61st place, he leads the Pleasanton standings with 10 wins from 44 starts. For the year, he shares 54th place in the national standings with 64 wins.

He’ll start four runners this week, two each today and Saturday. True Mantra is the 8-5 favorite in today’s third race.

McCanna began his career at Spokane’s Playfair Race Course, where he won four championships. He won 10 more at Emerald Downs, the Seattle-area track, before moving his racing operation to Northern California. The Pleasanton course, on the Alameda County Fairgrounds, has succeeded Golden Gate Fields, which closed for good in June, as a commercial track.

Whittingham, also in the state hall of fame, trained horses at Longacres, the previous West Side track, early in his career. In 1940, he started Dandy, the Longacres Mile runner-up, as the heavy favorite in the Playfair Mile. However, after a rainstorm turned the track to deep mud, Dandy finished seventh.