Rushing Headlong, Downhill At Omak -- Suicide Race Defended After Death Of Two Horses

OMAK, Okanogan County - When 10 tons of sturdy horseflesh and 17 yelping riders plunge down a 200-foot hill, as they did here yesterday afternoon, one thing's for sure: It gets your attention.

Horses and riders barrel down the steep slope, scramble across the Okanogan River and sprint to the finish line.

As its creators intended, Omak's legendary Suicide Race is difficult to ignore.

But once again, the event has drawn a brand of attention organizers would rather do without. Animal-rights activists want to see the Suicide Race shut down and its promoters charged with a crime.

The drowning deaths of two horses in practice runs a week ago have heightened objections to the event.

"I think we can make a case that this is reckless cruelty," said Mitchell Fox of the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). Fox said an investigator from the Sacramento office of the Humane Society of the United States traveled to Omak late last week to gather information about the drownings and press for criminal charges.

The 57-year-old Suicide Race is the marquee event of the Omak Stampede rodeo, biggest event of the year in this town of 4,100.

Yesterday's "elimination race" was held to narrow the field for the 1992 Suicide Race, which will accompany rodeo performances this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Evolved from Native American mountain races, the event still draws the bulk of its competitors from the Colville and Spokane Tribes of Northeast Washington.

"For a while, it was a grudge match between us and the white guys," said Bass Williams, a 22-year-old Colville who has run the event for eight years. Now, he says, he doesn't care who his opponents are, as long as they're behind him.

"It's a bad-ass rush, nothing but a rush," said Williams, who has been hurt twice in the event and had a horse break its legs under him in the river several years ago. The horse finished the race, but was destroyed because of the injuries.

Williams qualified in the middle of the pack yesterday on an appaloosa named Pepper.

Pepper's owner, Gary Waters of Nespelem, a seven-time Suicide winner, has little patience with outsiders who would interfere with the event.

"I'd tell them this is none of their business. We don't tell them what to do with their animals," said Waters, who argued that a horse is unlikely to get hurt if it's been properly trained.

HORSES' TRAINING CITED

Waters said he trains his horses several months for this and other mountain-style races, running them through deep snow, up steep hills and across small lakes.

Tom "Stretch" Best of Omak, yesterday's winner, concurred. "People can believe what they want, but they kill more horses on the racetrack than we do out here."

Best, 33, who earned yesterday's $237 first prize on a 12-year-old quarterhorse named Dude, said most mountain-race horses are mature and hardy, whereas thoroughbred tracks race 2-year-olds with fragile legs.

The two drownings last weekend make at least eight horses killed in conjunction with the Suicide Race in the past 10 years.

"Cactus" Jack Miller, race director, said the deaths were the result of poor judgment, not cruelty.

Heavy rains had raised the river to a depth of six feet, two feet higher than normal for this time of the year.

Miller said he had warned one of the owners not to send his inexperienced horse across the swollen river. The other horse, Miller said, appeared to have "some internal problems" that made it difficult for him to swim.

"He got into deep water and just kind of turned over," Miller said. "I don't know what went wrong."

After the deaths, Miller required horses new to the race to demonstrate their swimming ability with rescue boats on hand before they could compete.

"We thought all horses could swim," Miller said.

By yesterday, the river was back to a normal depth. One horse stumbled on entering the water, shedding its rider into the river, but neither appeared seriously hurt. The absence of any major mishaps in the qualifying run, Miller said, points up the success that three pages of safety instructions have achieved.

Horses' legs are wrapped; riders wear life jackets; three rescue boats stand by in the river during the race.

`IT'S JUST A SHAME'

"This is the way it usually goes," Miller said. "It's just a shame we had the problems last week."

Fox, however, is unconvinced.

"The individuals in this race are giving informed consent. If they want to risk their necks and their bones for a cash prize, that's their decision," Fox said. "We'd like to see the Suicide Race run without the horses."

In 1987, animal-rights activists tried to generate public opinion against the race. A couple of major sponsors dropped out, but the race was largely unaffected.

Now the race's opponents are exploring their options under a state law that gives humane-society officers power to seek criminal charges in animal-cruelty cases.

Okanogan County Prosecutor Jack Burchard doubts the protesters will succeed, noting that the animal-cruelty law allows an exemption for "normal" rodeo events.

"And this event has been normal here for many, many years," Burchard said.