OAKLAWN PARK SEASON IN REVIEW

Wet weather dampens business


Fans watch from the infield  during the fourth race Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
Fans watch from the infield during the fourth race Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.

HOT SPRINGS - Oaklawn Park completed its 54-day live season Saturday with slight decreases in on-track attendance and mutuel handle.

Blame it on the rain, General Manager Eric Jackson said before racing began on the final day of the meeting.

“I told somebody walking in this morning, ‘What a gorgeous morning; this helps make up for the 52 rainy ones,’ ” Jackson said. “It was a very wet season, but a very good season, nonetheless.”

The final Saturday of the meeting, conducted under sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70s, drew 66,158, Oaklawn’s largest crowd since 2006.

But Oaklawn lost its first scheduled Saturday of racing (Jan. 12) after heavy rain washed out the racing surface in several places, particularly on the first turn.

The problem also forced Oaklawn to cancel racing Jan. 13, reducing the season from 56 to 54 days.

Average daily attendance of 10, 324 represented a 2.4-percent decrease over last year’s 56-day season.

Average daily on-track handle slipped 1.7 percent to $747,281.

Severe weather impacted the Feb. 18 program - one of two special holiday Monday cards - and Oaklawn was unable to open the infield on two scheduled Saturdays (March 23 and March 30) because of rain and cold.

The racing surface didn’t dry as fast as past years and yielded much slower times, undoubtedly affected by heavy snow Christmas Day and subsequent rainfall throughout the season.

Only three 6-furlong races produced final times under 1:10 during the meeting.

Two of the races were Saturday.

“When the track’s not wet, we love it,” Jackson said. “It isn’t draining quite like we would like it to drain, and it may be because it was draining just about every single day. But when the horses go home, we’re going to peel back the cushion and see what the issue is.”

Oaklawn recorded small gains in average daily offtrack handle ($2,040,711), average daily total handle($2,787,992) and average starters per race (9.02).

Average daily purse distribution was a record $347,796, an 8.1 percent increase over last year.

Oaklawn used a new levelized purse structure this year - base maiden-allowance races, for example, were worth $53,000 throughout the meeting - instead of bumping purses several times like previous years.

Oaklawn had projected purses to average approximately $350,000 this year.

“Right on the button,” Jackson said.

Because of continued brisk business involving electronic games, Jackson said he would be “surprised” if purses don’t begin higher in 2014.

Higher purses and an improved economy fueled the most intense claiming activity since the 2006 meeting, with 333 claims totaling $4,934,750.

Ricardo Santana Jr., 19, rode 70 winners - the highest total at Oaklawn since 2004 - to become the youngest Oaklawn riding champion in 43 years.

Santana rode at least one winner for 18 trainers and had a combined 18 multi-win days in March and April.

Almost half of Santana’s victories (32) came for Steve Asmussen, who won 37 races to capture his fifth Oaklawn training title since 2007.

Chicago-based Midwest Thoroughbreds (Richard and Karen Papiese) won 16 races to claim its third consecutive owner’s title.

Oaklawn is scheduled to race 57 dates next year (Jan. 10-April 12).

It will be the earliest opening in Oaklawn history.

Sports, Pages 24 on 04/16/2013

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