Oaklawn Park will offer higher purses for the ninth consecutive year in its 2017 live racing season.
Maiden special weights will open at $72,000 and open allowance races as high as $80,000, the track said in a release Wednesday. Maiden-special-weight purses, doubling since 2011, are $4,000 higher than 2016. Allowance purses are up by as much as $5,000, and the bottom purse of $23,000 is $2,000 higher than last year and has increased more than 50 percent since 2011.
Oaklawn's purse structure is fueled by revenues from an on-track gaming center and simulcast racing seven days a week. Charles J. Cella, a fourth-generation racing executive, has been track president since 1968.
"Oaklawn continues to benefit from ownership that is 100 percent dedicated to racing, a thriving gaming operation and steadily growing handle thanks to better and better racing quality," Director of Racing David Longinotti said in the track's release. "It's exciting that year after year we continue to attract the horses the caliber of American Pharoah and Creator, and obviously our fans have responded in a big way."
American Pharoah won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and Grade 2 Rebel at Oaklawn in 2015 before becoming the sport's first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Creator gained his maiden victory at Oaklawn and took the Arkansas Derby, later winning the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes. From the barn of seven-time Oaklawn champion and newly minted racing Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Creator is entered in Saturday's Grade 1 $1.25 million Travers at Saratoga in upstate New York.
"Oaklawn has become the Saratoga of the Midwest," Asmussen said in the Oaklawn release. "There is no place that the better races go for better purses at that time of the year." (Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, trained by Asmussen, won the Arkansas Derby and Rebel in 2007.)
"Oaklawn got Creator to where he is today," said WinStar president Elliott Walden, who trained 1998 Arkansas Derby, Rebel and Belmont winner Victory Gallop. "The 3-year-old stakes program at Oaklawn is as good as anywhere in the country. That means something, not only financially, but from a progression standpoint. Horses have run extremely well in the Triple Crown races from that program. Bob Baffert (trainer of American Pharoah) has used it for a decade. It's a good place to get on to the next trip, which is the Triple Crown races."
Eric Hamelback, CEO of the national Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said "our industry should view Oaklawn as a model of what is working. Oaklawn and the Arkansas HBPA are a testament to racetracks and horsemen working together to overcome tough times, the result being world-class racing year after year."
Oaklawn, which recently annonced an $8.25-million stakes schedule, launches a 57-day season Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. The stable area opens Monday, Nov. 14 and the track opens for training Monday, Nov. 21.
Sports on 08/25/2016