This is a great weekend for sports in Arkansas.
Tonight at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network, the Arkansas Razorbacks will play their first game in the SEC Tournament, which is a huge improvement from last year when they were in a play-in game on Wednesday.
There's a good chance they'll play Saturday about 2:30 p.m.
Shortly after that game ends, the $1 million Rebel Stakes will cap a day at Oaklawn, where the best racing in the country takes place.
Over five races -- the Azeri, Essex, Temperence Hill, Hot Springs and Rebel -- more than $2 million in purses will be earned Saturday.
In the Rebel, eight horses will vie for 85 Kentucky Derby points, with 50 to the winner. The favorite is Caddo River, who won the Smarty Jones by 10 lengths.
Caddo River is owned by Arkansan John Ed Anthony's Shortleaf Stables. He also owned Temperence Hill, the winner of the 1980 Belmont Stakes at 53-1 odds.
There are a few horses shipping in for this race, including two for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
For more than a decade, Baffert has run horses in Oaklawn prep races for the Kentucky Derby because the racing surface is very similar to Churchill Downs. He also likes the way Oaklawn is managed.
What horsesman wouldn't though?
A year after Oaklawn voluntarily shut its doors to patrons because of covid-19 but continued racing, President Louis Cella announced the largest purse increase ever for the remainder of the season.
The purses jumped 15%.
Racing fans will love this card, which also has Shedaresthedevil in the Grade II Azeri. She won the Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn last year before winning the Kentucky Oaks.
There are 12 races Saturday with the first p0st at noon.
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For 40 years, your trusty correspondent covered conference tournaments starting with the Southwest Conference Tournament in San Antonio.
There are probably a book's worth of memories, but one that I will never forget was 1993 in Lexington, Ky. That was the second year that I was able to get four tickets to the tournament.
The SEC used to allow media members to buy up to four. They were not freebies, but Paul Smith -- a newspaper general manager and dear friend who passed away this week -- would have insisted on paying for them anyway.
Paul and his wife Elizabeth took Ken and Linda Eaton as their guests that year.
Paul was a big Razorback fan, but Linda loved basketball and they watched every game of the tournament.
The Razorbacks won their first game and then lost to Kentucky.
Some time between the win and loss, it started snowing. And snowing. And snowing.
Reports were 18 inches of snow fell on Lexington.
All flights in and out were canceled for three days, and I was concerned about getting home before having to depart for the NCAA Tournament.
That year Arkansas went to Winston-Salem, N.C., and beat Holy Cross and St. John's, then advanced to East Rutherford, N.J., where the Hogs lost to North Carolina 80-74.
Anyway, I ran into Paul at Rupp Arena and he graciously offered me a ride home in a private plane, but he explained we wouldn't be leaving until after the championship game.
That game was won by Kentucky, of course. The 11-point win over the Hogs in the semifinals was the closest game the Wildcats encountered.
Thanks to Paul -- and that's the type of person he was -- always caring about and helping others, I was home by 6 p.m. Sunday instead of Wednesday.
I made it all the way to the Final Four, where North Carolina beat Michigan by 77-71. That and the game with the Hogs were the closest ones the Tar Heels had during their title run.