Jockey Mike Smith flew in from California to help introduce the 2020 live racing season at Oaklawn Park, which begins Jan. 24 at the 116-year-old racetrack in Hot Springs.
Smith, 54, a member of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, was presented with the first Jack Van Berg Horse Racing Award at the Oaklawn Kickoff Banquet at Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock on Wednesday night.
"I rode for Jack since I was 16 years old," Smith said. "When the award came up, and I found out I was a recipient, I was thrilled to death, to be honest with you. It's always an honor to receive any award, but when it's in honor of a man like him, it takes it over the top."
The award, fashioned for notable people of racing connected in some way to Oaklawn, was named after the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, who moved his stable to Oaklawn from California for the final four of his 51 seasons as a trainer. Van Berg died in Little Rock on Dec. 27, 2017.
Smith, a regular among Oaklawn's riders from 1983-89, is now based in Southern California and primarily races at Santa Anita Park during the Oaklawn season, but his flights to Arkansas aren't limited to banquets. He frequently rides in Oaklawn stakes races, particularly those during the Racing Festival of the South, long a feature of mid-Aprils at the track. Last season, Smith rode Omaha Beach to victory in Oaklawn's Rebel Stakes on March 16, 2019, and the Arkansas Derby on April 13.
"I hope I get asked to come back," Smith said. "I love going there. I love the town first of all, and the track, it's just a hidden gem of horse racing, man. You walk through the front door and then you walk out the back toward the track, and it's just gorgeous. It's a great place to race. You always have a full grandstand, and it just makes you feel good.
"I'm kind of based in California now, and I have some pretty powerful outfits that I ride for there, so I get the best of both worlds when the Racing Festival rolls around. I get to go out to Hot Springs on a bunch of horses that come from California."
Omaha Beach began its 2019 Kentucky Derby prep campaign at Santa Anita, but the track suspended training and racing on March 5 last season after a total of 21 horses were injured and euthanized while training or racing on the track's dirt surface, which was damaged by record winter rainfall. Oaklawn President Louis Cella committed to split the Rebel into two divisions to make room for Derby hopefuls displaced by Santa Anita's trouble.
Santa Anita was declared safe this winter. Smith rode Fox Hill Farm's filly Jolie Olimpica to victory there in the Grade III Las Cienegas Stakes, a $100,000, 5 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares 4 years old and up on Saturday.
Smith said riders feel safe at Santa Anita this season, but he understood concerns after the multiple equine deaths from December 2018 through March 2019.
"It was worrisome," he said. "For a jockey, a horse's life is your life, but the track is in good shape right now. Really, it always has been.
"The only time we had a whole lot of trouble was when we had all that weather there, you know, for two and a half months. That rain for two months straight was very unusual, but we're trying to get back on the upswing out there. We're working hard at it. We seem to have things going in the right direction right now, so we'll see where it takes us."
Danger is inherent in racing for horses and riders alike, regardless of the track they race on, but Smith said he never has been concerned for his safety at Oaklawn.
"I haven't ridden out there on a regular basis in a long, long time, but I have never heard of anything out of the ordinary there," Smith said.
Oaklawn has dug out its racing surface of dirt, sand and silt to the base once a year since the fall of 2017, and replaced portions of each of the components incompatible with safe racing, Oaklawn General Manager Wayne Smith said. Oaklawn's now annual process is similar to the one undertaken by Santa Anita last fall that allowed the track to pass safety standards needed for certification to reopen.
Wayne Smith said a safe track is best for Oaklawn, its horsemen and their horses.
"We bring in fresh material, and we mix it, mix it, mix it for months, and then we test it, make sure it's what we want, and then we bring it back onto the track and spread it an inch at a time," he said. "That takes about a month. We do all of that, we test it, we work it a little bit, and put it to bed for about a month. Then, right before horses get here, we work it again, test it again, make sure it's the mixture that we want. We want to make sure it's the best track people can possibly come to."
Mike Smith rode for Van Berg on tracks in California and Arkansas. He said Van Berg was, in part, a father figure in his early development.
"He was just a wonderful man," Mike Smith said. "For a lot of riders, he was a big part of their careers early on, including mine. Larry Snyder comes to mind. Pat Day, Angel Cordero, Laffit Pincay. I mean, all the guys, [Willie] Shoemaker, everyone rode for Jack."
Oaklawn opening day
WHEN Friday, Jan. 24. Gates open 11 a.m. First race at 12:30 p.m.
WHERE Oaklawn Park, Hot Springs
OPENING FEATURE $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, 1 mile for 3-year-olds
Sports on 01/16/2020