Oaklawn Park is more than ready to turn the calendar to March, especially if past performance is any indication.
Over the past 50 years, Oaklawn has lost three days of live racing to winter weather after March 1.
But even if a 27th day of live racing is held today in Hot Springs, and no more days are lost in 2015, Saturday's sixth weather-related cancellation during the meet's first 32 scheduled days puts it right up there with the worst weather years in the past 50 years, ranking only behind 2011, which lost eight racing days.
"It's getting to be like Groundhog Day," Director of Racing David Longinotti said after Saturday's card was called around 9 a.m. because the temperature was 26 and had not been above freezing for more than 36 hours. "Every day I tell people I think we're going to be able to race, and then we have to cancel."
Longinotti said there was every reason to believe the track would resume racing today and said track management discussed the idea of adding two Wednesdays -- March 18 and March 25 -- during a morning meeting, a decision that was embraced by embattled horsemen and approved by the Arkansas Racing Commission at its regularly scheduled meeting.
"It's just the right thing to do," Longinotti said of the extra racing days.
Saturday's high reached 40 degrees, but it was those 40 hours of sub-freezing temperatures from 8 p.m. Thursday night to noon Saturday that put the track in a bind.
"It takes awhile for the track to come back," Longinotti said.
Oaklawn General Manager Eric Jackson has seen plenty of winter weather in his 25 years on the job, and said the decision to add two Wednesdays in March was an attempt to make the best of a difficult situation.
"The last two weeks have been hard on everyone -- racing fans, horsemen, jockeys, employees, Oaklawn itself -- as well as local businesses," Jackson said in a news release. "The two additional days means we will essentially be racing five days a week for the last month of our season. That is not ideal, but under these stressful circumstances, we believe it is the best option."
Veteran trainer Steve Hobby, a Oaklawn regular for decades, said the horsemen appreciate what track management is trying to do.
"They've been on the track night and day for almost two weeks now, trying to save racing," Hobby said in the release. "Offering to come up with two additional race days is really appreciated, and reflects on the great working relationship horsemen have with Oaklawn management."
The two additional days will result in a 53-day race season if there are no additional cancellations.
If it seems Oaklawn has been afflicted by more cancellations in the past decade than during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Longinotti points out that the track has continued to move up the start of the season from its traditional February start to a scheduled Jan. 9 start this season, which was postponed because of ice.
Oaklawn has lost 70 days of racing to inclement weather over the past 50 years, according to the track's media guide, but there have been 25 seasons with no cancellations and 12 others with one or two lost days.
The problem has been exacerbated in the years since 1991, when Oaklawn starting regularly racing in January, with a trend of four-day weeks in January and the elimination of Wednesday racing in March.
January racing days have been cancelled slightly more than 10 percent of the time (17 of 167), with February about 7 percent (32 of 450) and March losing two days since 1994, less than 1 percent.
"One of the problems," Longinotti said, "is that we keep backing our self up earlier and earlier in January."
Saturday's Feb. 28 cancellation is the third-latest on record since 1989, which lost March 6 to inclement weather. March 3 was lost in 2002, and last year, the last five races of the March 2 card was lost because of heavy rain and deteriorating weather conditions.
Sports on 03/01/2015