Purses rise in ‘levelized’ plan

HOT SPRINGS — Oaklawn Park’s 56-day live season begins at 1 p.m. today with changes.

Lots of changes.

Casual fans may not notice many of the tweaks, like the main elevator near the paddock being replaced late last year. Passengers can now reach the fifth floor - the roof - about three times faster than the original installed about 40 years ago.

“Some years, you get to do things like a big screen TV,” Oaklawn General Manager Eric Jackson said. “Other years, you have to focus on, like, plumbing. This is one of those years where we’ve invested heavily in areas that you don’t normally see.”

Horsemen are well aware of another change.

Purses at Oaklawn are going through the roof, projected to average a season record $350,000 per day, Jackson said, a figure fueled largely by continued robust business involving electronic skilled based games.

In just three years, Jackson said Oaklawn has already outgrown a lavish 90,0000-square foot addition/renovation at the south end of the grandstand that houses the games. The hope, Jackson said, is Oaklawn can begin another major expansion by May 2014.

“We are going to be constrained for the next 24 months,” Jackson said. “We have to find ways to grow business and grow purses.”

Partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-60s, unseasonably mild for the earliest opening in Oaklawn history, could help the track get off to a fast business start today.

The nine-race program is highlighted by the $75,000 Fifth Season Stakes for older horses. The card also features a $53,000 maiden special weights sprint for 3-year-olds and an entry-level allowance/ optional claimer for 3-yearold fillies at 1 1/16-miles. It carries a purse of $54,000.

Maidens special weights races were worth only $40,000 to open the 2012 meeting. Open allowance races will be as high as $56,000, another major hike from the start of last year’s meeting.

“The purses are spectacular,” Jackson said.

Purses are expected to total approximately $20 million this year, based on contracts with horsemen and laws, etc., Jackson said.

Oaklawn averaged $321,693 in daily purses last year, a figure boosted by several bumps during the meeting.

Jackson said Oaklawn has changed its approach to purse distribution this year, opting to be aggressive early in hopes of “levelized” purses.

In a perfect world, Jackson said, a track would know exactly how many dollars to distribute to purses during an entire season, along with the number of races.

“You’re running maidens for $50,000 at the start, they’d be $50,000 at the end,” Jackson said. “We’ll see how levelized goes. We’ve never been able to do it before, largely because the general manager has been too cautious.”

Higher purses helped lure many new jockeys and trainers.

Robby Albarado, Oaklawn’s leading rider in 1996 and 1997, has returned for the first time since 2006. Rosemary Homeister Jr., the second-winningest female rider in North American history, is riding at Oaklawn for the first time.

Training newcomers include Dale Romans, Al Stall, Eoin Harty, Helen Pitts and Phil Sims.

“I think we got a lot of those people because of the higher purses,” Jackson said.

Other changes for the 2013 season include race-day physical examinations of all horses entered to run that day, maintaining an injury data base for horses and lowering the permitted level of the anti-inflammatory medication bute.

Jackson said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the season.

“We do need the economy to be good, we need gas prices to be low and we need the weather to be good,” Jackson said. “If we can get those three things - we know the racing is going to be good, but we need those other things to fall into place.”