HOT SPRINGS — The numbers were like old times.
Fans flocked to Oaklawn Park, and Robby Albarado was winning races.
The first day of Oaklawn’s scheduled 56-day live season was a smashing success as a crowd of 19,633, at times splashed in sun, wagered $1,119,168.50 on a mild Friday afternoon.
“Who would have thought we would have gotten weather like this on Jan. 11,” said David Longinotti, Oaklawn’s assistant general manager for racing.
Albarado won the first race on his way to a riding triple, which included two victories for trainer Cody Autrey. Albarado, Oaklawn’s champion jockey in 1996 and 1997, is riding regularly at Oaklawn for the first time since 2006.
“It was good to see him back,” Longinotti said.
Longinotti said track officials were ecstatic about the opening-day figures for the nine-race program, which were up about 10 percent over last year. Attendance represented an 8.5 percent increase, while on-track handle was up 10.9 percent.
Oaklawn ended the 2012 meeting with declines of about 10 percent in on-track business.
“It’s always good to get off to a good start,” Longinotti said. “We had no idea what to expect because we were kind of going against what we’ve done in the past.”
Oaklawn had opened with four days of racing the past few years, which included a holiday Monday, before shifting into its normal Thursday-Sunday schedule. But Friday’s opening, the earliest in track history, anchors only three days of racing to begin the meeting.
Longinotti said Friday’s business spike could be attributed to a saturation of media coverage earlier in the week involving jockey Calvin Borel and Arkansans itching to stretch their legs following a Christmas Day snowstorm and soaking rainfall Thursday that left the track good on opening day.
“Maybe there’s some lingering effect, malaise, from the snowstorm,” Longinotti said. “People just want to get out.”
The popular Borel, who has 4,999 career victories, is poised to become just the 26th jockey in North American history to reach 5,000. He was named on five horses Friday, but he is expected to miss approximately three weeks because of a broken wrist.
Borel would have “absolutely” generated more fan interest if he had ridden Friday, Longinotti said.
“I think people would have wanted to be here to get his 5,000th,” Longinotti said. “He’s got a lot of fans here.”
Longinotti said the only operational problem involved MyOaklawn, an application that allows fans to wager on races through their smart phones while at Oaklawn. The problem, Longinotti said, involved an Internet connectivity issue between Oaklawn and an AmTote, or American Totalisator Company, hub in Hunt Valley, Md.
Longinotti said Oaklawn officials decided to shut down MyOaklawn and lost handle for one race midway through the card before the problem was corrected.
“It was still a good day, numbers wise,” Longinotti said. “No clue what that means for the next 55 days.”
Racing resumes at 1 p.m. today with nine races, including the $60,000 Dixie Belle Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Oaklawn’s popular price-rollback promotion is also today. Corned beef sandwiches will cost 50 cents and soft drinks 10 cents.
By the numbers
3 Victories by jockey Robby Albarado
5 Post time favorites who won in nine races
10 Percentage increase in on-track wagering over 2012
$12.60 Average price of winning horses, boosted by Kate Pressley ($38.80) in the fourth and Donoharm ($29) in eighth
$312,000 Purse money distributed in Friday’s 9-race card
Sports, Pages 19 on 01/12/2013