Arkansas horsemen assets at Oaklawn

Horses break from the starting gate during the first race of Oaklawn's live race meet on December 3, 2021. Oaklawn's live race meet begins on Friday. (The Sentinel-Record/File photo)
Horses break from the starting gate during the first race of Oaklawn's live race meet on December 3, 2021. Oaklawn's live race meet begins on Friday. (The Sentinel-Record/File photo)

HOT SPRINGS -- Arkansans have always set the stage for horse racing at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. More so every year, horsemen from Arkansas take that stage and put on the show.

Oaklawn's 2022-23 season begins Friday. Trainers with roots tied to Arkansas who have horses entered for opening day include Robert Cline, Ron Moquett and Tim Martin, among others. Lifelong Arkansans Dan Pietz and Jinks Fires are among native trainers with barn stalls reserved for the coming meet. Each has raced champions on Oaklawn's racetrack.

Championship-caliber thoroughbred owners from Arkansas include John Ed Anthony, Danny Caldwell, Frank Fletcher, Staton Flurry, Willis Horton, Steve Landers, Alex Lieblong, Dwight Pruett, and Harry Rosenblum among many.

Oaklawn President Louis Cella said he knows Arkansas owners sometimes draw hundreds of family, friends, and fans when their horses race in Hot Springs.

"Our connections stay here all year and follow their horses," he said. "When they have a horse, it's not just them flying in for the weekend. They have friends and family who come in for the day, and that's what it's all about for sure."

"Oaklawn's a real prestigious park, and Cella's doing a good job with it," Landers said. "He's a really a progressive-thinking guy. He doesn't look in the mirror. He thinks ahead. He's really a good guy, and he's got a great facility. The casino's good. The hotel's good, so it's really good for Arkansans."

Cline's partner Kelsi Harr, raised in tiny Slovak near Hazen, will ride 8-year-old Arkansas-bred star Bandit Point on Saturday, one of nine she will ride for Cline through the meet's first two days.

Horsemen and horse owners, like most sports participants, tend to cheer for sportsmen from their home state, but they also admire most around them involved in the same hard work of their trade.

"Horsemen are their own breed of people," Harr said. "I'm sure we all kind of think the same and want the same thing in life and with the world, so someone who has dirt on their boots, I always have a little more respect for them than for the suit-and-tie fellow, nothing against the suit-and-tie fellow, it's just my preference."

"I think we're all somewhat rooting for each other," Cline, 38 of Hot Springs, said. "Anytime you see an Arkie-bred do good in an open race, you cheer for the individual because we do know most everybody who's from around here. A lot of us are friends."

Encouragement is plentiful at Oaklawn.

Moquett, 51, was raised in the Fort Smith suburb of Pocola, Okla., as a diehard fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks. He said he is and has always been aware of the sporting interests common to most Arkansans, racing at Oaklawn included.

"No matter what, you want to see people from where you're from do well," Moquett said. "If you can't win the race, you hope someone you know does. We're for everybody who comes in, but no matter, you're always cheering for the home team."

Tim Martin, 60, originally from Hardy in northeast Arkansas near the Missouri border, has long called Hot Springs home. He has two horses entered Friday, including Tyler's Tribe, the 3/5 morning-line favorite in the $150,000 5 1/2-furlong Advent Stakes for 2-year-olds.

"It's good to get state people involved," Martin said. "There's a lot of people down here interested in this. This is some pretty good horse country around here. That's why I moved out of Hardy to here in Hot Springs because there's racehorse people here and a racetrack."

With horses at work before him on Monday morning, Moquett said Arkansans at Oaklawn have long treated successful horses and horsemen as if they were locals from the start.

"The state of Arkansas really, really pulls for their own," Moquett said. "Where I'm from, because high school football is such a big deal, you got high school football, you got the Arkansas Razorbacks, you got Oaklawn and the Dallas Cowboys, and that's it. Some of them who follow baseball have the St. Louis Cardinals, but that's who you got. If you're from here, that's who you root for."


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