Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort held its annual ribbon-cutting ceremony with The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce in front of the new Mainline Sports Bar and Sportsbook Thursday to mark the opening of the 118th season of live racing.
The track opens at 11 a.m., with first post set for 12:30 p.m., today for Oaklawn's second expanded racing season. With the exception of the weekend of Christmas, the season runs every weekend through May 6 for 68 days of racing.
"We're excited about a lot of things, obviously getting back to racing in December," Wayne Smith, general manager of Oaklawn, said. "This is our second year doing it. Last year was a great success for us, and so we're very happy to be able to come back and do that -- 68 full days of racing this year for the race meet."
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Smith touted the quality of racing at the track, as well.
"We're also excited about the opportunity to actually have some of the best horse racing in America at the time that we race," he said. "We've gotten a lot of trainers that came back. We've got a number of new ones, and we've also got a lot of owners and trainers coming back."
One of those new trainers is Riley Mott, son of Hall of Fame trainer and three-time Eclipse Award winner Bill Mott. The 30-year-old trainer stepped out on his own last month after working with his father for many years.
"Riley Mott is obviously a new one here for us," Smith said. "He's gone out on his own away from his father, so we're very excited to have him. We're obviously very excited to have our normal trainers -- Steve Asmussen, Ron Moquett, D. Wayne Lukas, Brad Cox -- to name a few.
"So we're very excited to have those that have always been a staple at Oaklawn, but really bringing in that new generation -- the Riley Motts of the world, Johnny Ortiz -- those kind of guys are really the ones that are kind of the up and coming, and we're very excited for them and for the backside."
While the weather this week has not been ideal, forecasts for opening day appear positive, and Smith said he is optimistic about nice weather.
"We're hopeful for great weather, but, you know, the sun always shines at Oaklawn, no matter what," he said.
"So we're pretty excited about that. I think the main thing for (today) is just getting folks in the building and (for them to) be able to experience all that we have to offer from horse racing to the casino to the resort to the new sports bar, everything that everybody expects to happen during racing."
As usual, Corned Beef Day returns on Saturday, Smith said.
"Always, the first Saturday after opening day is Corned Beef Day," he said. "So two corned beef sandwiches and a coke for $1. You can't beat that anywhere in the country, so we're very excited for that."
Smith said there are many promotions this season on the racing side, but he emphasized the return of Hall of Fame Day, which will be held on March 18.
"We had about 20ish last year; we're hoping to double that number this coming year," he said. "More to come on that in March, but we're very excited to have the Hall of Fame Day. We think from a racing perspective, being such a racing state that's so invested in the sport of horse racing, folks will really enjoy seeing a lot of those Hall of Famers."
Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort General Manager Wayne Smith discusses Friday's start of the 118th season of live racing at Oaklawn. - Photo by Lance Porter of The Sentinel-Record