LITTLE ROCK — Officials recruiting trainers
Officials at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs have started recruiting for the 2011 season that begins Jan. 14, said David Longinotti, the track’s assistant general manager/ racing.
Longinotti was in Southern California last month, and racing secretary Pat Pope visited trainers earlier this month at Arlington Park in suburban Chicago.
Longinotti will be in Indiana this week to see Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who will saddle champion Lookin At Lucky in the $500,000 Grade II Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park.
“We’re very early in the game,” Longinotti said. “We don’t have stall applications in yet. Stall applications aren’t due until Oct. 28, but we are getting requests for them. So far, so good.”
Longinotti said he met with several trainers while in California, including Jerry Hollendorfer, John Shirreffs, Wally Dollase, Mel Stute, Gary Stute and Mike Mitchell.
California-based trainers enjoyed immense success at the 2010 Oaklawn meeting.
Baffert, who hadn’t started at horse at Oaklawn since 2002, finished the meeting with five victories from six starts, including four stakes.
All five horses he ran at the meeting won, including Lookin At Lucky in the $300,000 Grade II Rebel Stakes.
Shirreffs saddled unbeaten Zenyatta in the $500,000 Grade I Apple Blossom for older fillies and mares.
Hollendorfer saddled Blind Luck, the country’s top 3-year-old filly, to win the $300,000 Grade II Fantasy Stakes.
John Sadler won the $1 million Grade I Arkansas Derby with Line of David.
Longinotti said Pope will be at Remington Park in Oklahoma City next weekend and hit Kentucky in mid-October.
Pope is also the racing secretary at Delaware Park.
He is trying to convince high-profile East Coast trainers at Delaware to winter at Oaklawn in 2011, Longinotti said.
Expansion?
Instant Racing, the electronic pari-mutual game that allows fans to wager on previously run horse races, has been highly successful at Oaklawn, but it’s never caught on outside the state because of regulatory hurdles and tracks holding out for slot machines.
Now, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has approved Instant Racing at licensed tracks in the state.
Lou Cella, son of Oaklawn owner Charles Cella and the point man for Instant Racing, said he’s spent six years trying to drum up support for the alternate wagering concept in Kentucky.
“Finally in Kentucky, you’ve got a racing commission doing everything they can to help racing, just like in Arkansas, 10, 12 years ago, the racing commission did everythingthey could in their power to help racing,” Cella said.
If Instant Racing can survive a legal challenge from an anti-gambling group, Cella said he anticipates Instant Racing in Kentucky by late 2010 or early 2011.
Since Instant Racing was introduced at Oaklawn in early 2000, it has generated millions of dollars for purses.
Kentucky’s racing industry has been hurt by slot-fueled purses at tracks in neighboring states.
Like Arkansas, Kentucky doesn’t have slot wagering.
Instant Racing had stintsin Oregon and Wyoming, but was pulled because of legal red tape.
Kentucky money
Little Rock-based Westrock Stables LLC (Scott and Joe Ford) had spent $1.1 million through Friday on five yearlings at the famed Keeneland September sale, which ends today in Lexington, Ky.
Westrock purchased a Lion Heart colt for $370,000, a Tiznow filly for $350,000, a Rock Hard Ten colt for $200,000, an AfleetAlex colt for $120,000 and a Yes It’s True filly for $60,000.
The colt by champion Afleet Alex, winner of the 2005 Arkansas Derby, is a half brother to turf standout Better Talk Now, a multiple Grade I winner of more than $4 million.
The second dam of the Tiznow filly, Sweet Damsel, produced multiple Grade I winner and millionaire Colonel John.
Alex and JoAnn Lieblong of Conway had spent $685,000 through Friday on eight yearlings.
They purchased a Mr.
Greeley colt for $280,000, a Tiznow colt for $120,000 and a Ghostzapper colt for $75,000.
The Mr. Greeley colt is a half brother to multiple Grade I winner and millionaire Hollywood Story.
The second dam of the colt by Ghostzapper, Weekend Surprise, produced 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy and Summer Squall, winner of the 1990 Preakness.
Ghostzapper was the 2004 Horse of the Year.
Sports, Pages 38 on 09/26/2010