DAY 17 OF 57
FRIDAY'S ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE 4,250
FRIDAY'S ON-TRACK HANDLE $341,496
FRIDAY'S OFF-TRACK HANDLE $2,612,386
FRIDAY'S TOTAL HANDLE $2,953,882
TODAY'S SIMULCAST SCHEDULE Gulfstream Park, 11 a.m.; Aqueduct, 11:20 a.m.; Tampa Bay, 11:20 a.m.; Laurel Park, 11:30 a.m.; Fair Grounds, 12:30 p.m.; Santa Anita, 2:30 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:45 p.m.; Penn National, 5:05 p.m.; Turfway Park, 5:15 p.m.; Delta Downs, 5:25 p.m.; Charles Town, 6 p.m.; Daytona Beach (greyhounds), 6:25 p.m.; Derby Lane (greyhounds), 6:30 p.m.; Sam Houston, 7:15 p.m.; Southland (greyhounds), 7:15 p.m.; Los Alamitos, 8 p.m.
FRIDAY'S STARS
There were no multiple winners among jockeys and trainers.
TRAINER BOREL RETURNS
Trainer Cecil Borel, the older brother of Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel, is scheduled to saddle his first starter in 4½ years, Chip Van Winkle, in today's ninth race at Oaklawn, a $10,000 claiming sprint for older horses.
Cecil Borel, 65, started his first horse in 1979 and collected 718 victories and $8.5 million in purse earnings before retiring in August 2014. According to Equibase, racing's official data-gathering organization, Borel retired to spend time with his ailing wife, Debbie, a former racing official at Oaklawn who died of cancer a few months later. They were married 42 years.
"It just hurt bad when I lost Debbie," Borel said. "I wanted to go home and just stay by myself and that's what I did."
Borel said he returned to south Louisiana, fished "a good bit" and spent time with his 11 grandchildren, adding he severed ties with the racetrack until the 2017-2018 Fair Grounds meeting when he spent two weeks visiting his brother. Cecil Borel said his training juices began flowing even more after spending two weeks in Kentucky last summer.
"That was the icing on the cake," Cecil Borel said.
Calvin Borel said in December that his brother was planning a comeback at the 2019 Oaklawn meeting. The wheels began turning when Cecil Borel claimed Chip Van Winkle out of a fourth-place finish Feb. 8 for $6,250. Borel took the 6-year-old gelding on behalf of one of his former exercise riders, Renay Falkner, who now works for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and is Calvin Borel's wife. The couple have a 15-month-old son, Chase Clovis Borel.
"I want to spend time with my little brother and the grandkids and then his little wife," Cecil Borel said. "She and I get along good. I love that little Chase. I've got some grandkids back home, but they're all starting to get bigger and bigger. It's time for me to do something. Debbie and I talked about it and she told me to spend a little money and enjoy myself. And I love my horses. I missed the racetrack people."
Calvin Borel is named to ride Chip Van Winkle, who is 8-1 on the morning line.
SANTANA TOPS $1 MILLION
Ricardo Santana Jr. ($1,009,388) became the first jockey at the meet to reach $1 million in purse earnings Thursday, the 16th day of the scheduled 57-day season. It's the fastest Santana, Oaklawn's leading jockey the past six years, has reached seven figures since he began riding in Hot Springs in 2011.
Santana reached $1 million on Day 40 in 2013, Day 24 in 2014, Day 25 in 2015, Day 24 in 2016, Day 24 in 2017 and Day 23 last year.
Santana, 26, set a single-season Oaklawn record for purse earnings last year ($4,240,304). His mounts had earned $674,527 through the first 16 days in 2018.
Santana had 433 career victories in Hot Springs, including a meet-high 21 this year, through Thursday.
Information for this report was contributed by Oaklawn media department
2019 leaders
Through Friday’s races
JOCKEYS
RK. NAME ST. W P S PCT. MONEY
Ricardo Santana ......96 21 12 9 22 $1,028,935
David Cohn ..............89 20 13 11 22 $672,762
Ramon Vazquez .......97 14 11 7 14 $565,402
F. De La Cruz ............47 8 4 12 17 $450,547
David Cabrera .........109 7 18 7 6 $622,158
Jon Court .................51 7 5 5 14 $361,808
J. Bridgmohan .........39 7 3 0 18 $256,645
Richard Eramia ........78 6 7 17 8 $496,226
Stewart Elliott ...........47 6 9 6 13 $318,015
Alex Canchari .........60 5 5 6 8 $281,796
TRAINERS
RK. NAME ST. W P S PCT. MONEY
Steven Asmussen ....74 16 6 7 22 $1,092,698
Robertino Diodoro ...62 10 10 10 16 $372,720
Norman McKnight ...41 9 6 6 22 $231,565
Federico Villafranco .42 9 3 5 21 $221,794
John Ortiz .................26 7 4 3 27 $191,384
Karl Broberg .............36 6 10 8 17 $197,202
Ingrid Mason ...........36 5 4 2 14 $220,936
Larry Jones ..............14 4 0 1 29 $434,773
James DiVito .............9 4 0 0 44 $201,012
Paul Holthus ............22 4 1 3 18 $125,328
Sports on 02/23/2019