Oaklawn: Season to continue

Oaklawn President and Owner Louis Cella is shown in this file photo.
(Democrat-Gazette file photo)
Oaklawn President and Owner Louis Cella is shown in this file photo. (Democrat-Gazette file photo)

Racing will continue at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs despite the announcement late Sunday night that its casino will be closed through March 30.

The decision affects casino operations, Silks Bar and Grill, Bistro 2705 and the Sports Book.

"It's a minimum of two weeks," Oaklawn President Louis Cella said. "We'll just see where we are in two weeks."

Oaklawn ran its scheduled thoroughbred races Saturday and Sunday, but as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, fans were not allowed to attend the races. The schedule featured a total of four stakes races, including the Grade II Rebel Stakes, the third of four Kentucky Derby qualifying races offered at the track, and the Grade II Azeri Stakes for fillies and mares.

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Racing operations will continue without spectators through March 30, according to Oaklawn.com.

Cella said he thought racing without fans in attendance made sense, but that racing itself would put horsemen in no further jeopardy than their mandatory day-to-day care of horses does.

"At least this provides them an opportunity to win a race and get a paycheck, so they can help offset the cost of owning a horse," Cella said. "It's an easy decision on our part, and I don't know, frankly, how that would change unless we got some edict from up high above that tells us we just have to shut the doors. I don't know what would happen then because the horses are still going to be on the backstretch, and all of those people are going to be on the backstretch taking care of the horses."

Cella said financial implications to any voluntary or involuntary decisions Oaklawn has to make are something that will be dealt with over time.

"Trust me, we're taking it on the chin," Cella said. "This is a very expensive proposition that we're entering into, but it's the right thing to do for our horses and the right thing to do for our sport, and that's why we're doing it."

Cella said in a news release Sunday that it's also important Oaklawn takes care of its employees who won't be working during this time.

"As a good community citizen, we felt this was the right thing to do for public health," he said. "As for the nearly 1,000 team members we have on staff during this live racing season, including all year round and seasonal team members, we will continue to pay their salary and benefits during this two-week period."

Pete Perkins contributed to this article.

Sports on 03/17/2020

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