Track announcer off to Vegas for handicappers' tourney

In his second season of calling winners at Oaklawn Park, track announcer Vic Stauffer spends this weekend in Las Vegas trying to pick them.

Stauffer will be testing his skills in the 19th NTRA National Handicappers Championship today through Sunday. A noted tournament handicapper, Stauffer played his way into the nationals at Treasure Island Casino.

Jim Byers, track announcer the two years at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, worked Race 9 at Oaklawn Thursday, acclimating himself before calling full cards today, Saturday and Sunday.

"One down and 27 to go," said Byers, who had been filling in at Texas' Sam Houston Race Park.

Stauffer, only the sixth full-time announcer in 114 years of Oaklawn racing, recruited Byers for the weekend stand. Stauffer and wife Martina, who oversees the Oaklawn press box, flew to Las Vegas Thursday night.

"We have an agreement with Vic that if he qualifies for the national handicapping contest, then we allow him to go and compete because that's important to him," said David Longinotti, Oaklawn's racing director. "But if that happens, he is responsible for finding a replacement that, of course, we have final approval over.

"I've known Jim forever," said Longinotti, who along with Byers, the Oklahoma track's first announcer, helped usher in racing at Remington Park in 1988. Byers served 11 years as thoroughbred and quarter horse announcer at Remington. Before that, he called races at Hollywood Park for four years after joining the Southern California circuit as backup announcer at Del Mar and Santa Anita.

"He's a pro," said Stauffer, whose local duties include hosting a one-hour racing program on local radio each Saturday morning.

Calling a $22,000 race in diminishing twilight, Byers took a field of 12 maidens through six furlongs in 1:12.53, Ninth Hour ($15.60) coming off the pace with Jon Court to win for trainer and father-in-law Jinks Fires.

"The race turned out pretty formful," Byers said. "The main thing is just knowing the horses."

Tournament add: Approximately 700 people will participate, with first prize being $800,000.

Defending champion Ray Arsenault totaled $407.70 over the three-day event last year from 53 mythical $2 win and place bets. One of his four double-digit winners on Day 2 returned $100, worth the maximum $64 for contest scoring. Winning the NHC, Arsenault received an Eclipse Award for Handicapper of the Year.

"I've got to be prepared. That will be the whole key. If I can find time -- Vegas is a tough place for me to really concentrate, because I don't sleep a lot there," said Arsenault, who started playing handicapping tournaments in 2003 at Woodbine Race Course in Canada. "You can't walk in there and expect to do well without doing your homework. Unless you're very lucky."

Power off: Trainer Donnie Von Hemel has ruled out the Grade 3 $500,000 Southwest Feb. 19 as the next start for last-out Oaklawn winner Higher Power, who missed approximately a week of training because of a minor illness. The half-brother to millionaire and 2012 Oaklawn Handicap winner Alternation won an entry-level allowance/optional claimer Jan. 13 and last worked Jan. 26.

Of running in the Southwest, Von Hemel said "that would be unfair to everybody involved -- horse, gamblers, owners. He only had the fever one day, but he had mucous. His appetite has been good the whole time, so that helped. But he's getting a little tough to handle now."

Von Hemel said Higher Power, by Oaklawn maiden winner and 2003 Oaklawn Handicap winner Medaglia d'Oro, will be considered for Oaklawn's Grade 2 $900,000 Rebel March 17. The Rebel is the final major local prep for the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby April 14.

"We'll just have to see how things progress and see if we can be ready for that one," said Von Hemel, who trains Higher Power for owner-breeder Josephine Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stable.

Monkey business: In racing circles, The Green Monkey is synonymous with the Edsel, New Coke and the XFL as a flop of major proportions. Sold for $16 million as a 2-year-old colt, the son of Storm Cat and Magical Masquerade (by Unbridled) managed only a third-place finish and $10,240 in three starts for future Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher and high-profile owners Susan Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor. As a final indignity, The Green Monkey (named for a golf course in Barbados) commanded a mere $5,000 stud fee as of 2016.

A runner he was not; a quality sire he still can become.

One of his daughters, 4-year-old filly Belle Meade Dancer, found the winner's circle in her career debut in Thursday's sixth race at Oaklawn, a $75,000 maiden-special-weights event. Bouncing out on top from outside post nine, the gray or roan Florida-bred scored a front-running triumph of three quarters of a length with Jareth Loveberry aboard, her fast-rated six furlongs in 1:11.70. Mac Robertson trains Belle Meade Dancer for a group including his father and longtime trainer, Hugh Robertson.

Belle Meade Dancer earned $45,000, easily recouping the $14,000 she brought as a 2-year-old at the June 2016 Ocala Breeders' Sales.

Sports on 02/09/2018

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