OAKLAWN 2004 OVERVIEW
By Mark Lamberti
Oaklawn Park's Centennial Racing Season promises to be something special. The venerable track which is located in the resort town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, sits in the midst of a national park, surrounded by picturesque lakes, and is the gateway to the Ozark Mountains. A fair share of horse farms dot the winding roads in and out of this resort city.
Oaklawn's spring meet is eagerly anticipated each year as the premier venue for Midwestern and Southwestern racing. Racing fans from across the region join the locals, descending on the resort for the love of the game and the ambience that permeates the air every race day in every eatery and in those rightly famous bath houses (spas fed by natural hot springs). It's this feeling of passion and fun that makes Oaklawn and Hot Springs a favorite place for a weekend getaway. Racing programs outnumber newspapers at the breakfast cafes and under the arms of window shoppers on Central Avenue. Even those who take those winding roads into Hot Springs for a lake view or weekend camping trip enjoy more than a whiff of the racing excitement. It's inescapable. For many years long-time players and regional horsemen have considered the spring meet to be the last living relative of the old Remington Park spring season. With the recent problems besetting Oklahoma racing, Remington in particular (its weak fall meet a pale comparison for the Oklahoma horsemen), Oaklawn is the Spring "place to be" for the region's racing population.
With Lone Star Park's conservative approach to its Spring season purses (saving the most substantial purses and conditions for the Breeders Cup fall season), the Texas contingent will also be extremely strong this year, thanks as well to the purse cuts at Sam Houston and the slight overlap with the start of Lone Star's season. Oaklawn's conditions invite not only the regular strings from the Texas and Oklahoma circuits, but you will find quite a few locals who know their stuff. Chief among these is trainer/owner Stan Roberts, who makes his home down the road in Fort Smith, who finished second in the 2003 trainer standings. Stan's rival for the trainer title last year, Matthew “Cole” Norman is back with an extremely capable stable, and both barns have had their stock in training at the Spa since early January. Norman took a pass on Fair Grounds, finishing up his season at Louisiana Downs and moving the majority of his runners to Oaklawn as soon as the backside opened. Roberts decided to forego the winter in Illinois for a change and pointed his runners to Hot Springs, hitting the road for home in December.
Another stable to watch, as one might expect, is that of Steve Asmussen, who will be splitting his first-tier between Fair Grounds and Oaklawn, with the Oaklawn runners aiming for the Texas summer season. Asmussen's third string extends to Sunland and Sam Houston, but his best runners will be here at Oaklawn.
Among the Oklahomans to keep an eye on are Donnie Von Hemel, Kenny Smith, and Chuck Turco, who annually target this season with their best strings, and one small outfit to watch this year, Kari Craddock, one of my personal favorites who specializes in winning with younger colts and fillies. Watch for Kari to be popping in maiden special winners fresh out of the gate.
Speaking of young horses, Oaklawn's Centennial meet is showcasing three-year-olds in a big way. With over $6 million in purses dedicated to that age group, expect to see some serious Derby contenders from the nation's top stables shipping in for prep races. Handicappers with experience will prefer the locals in those situations, horses that have proven themselves on the Oaklawn racing surface tend to do very well. The class factors are raised this season, but we'll go on record here preferring the advantage of the regional runners.
Things to watch for: speed and more speed. OP's racing surface is very kind to horses who have a front-running style, and the come-from-behinds just don't make it as often as their speed figures would have the uniformed believe. Six furlong races have a very long backstretch run, and those races are generally decided before the group makes that wide, long turn for home. The best trainers know this rule, and they condition their horses accordingly. Serious running style changes are in store for horses shipping in from other locales and while it is disadvantageous for newcomers, the best learn quickly. During the opening weeks of the season, we like to stay with the local connections while those newcomers figure it out.
Route races are also speed-biased and long-time Oaklawn players know by heart announcer Terry Wallace's rejoinders that the one-mile races start and end at the sixteenth pole, a factor that never ceases to amaze and surprise first-time race watchers. The flat miles at Oaklawn descend into a very short stretch run – shortened by a sixteenth of a mile – and that makes for a longer run into the first turn (favoring speed horses once again while discouraging one-pace closers), and once the pack makes that second turn you will find those horses on the lead are more often than not going to make up those board finishers. I've kept up a database of Oaklawn results and charts over the years and a quick rundown of winning sprint and route profiles confirms what we already know (using fast track data only).
There is a table here but I don't know how to put it in the post so its readable-suami.
To view it go to http://www.trackmaster.com/retail/oaklawn.htm
Closers do gain some advantage, with the regular stretch run in the mile-and-sixteenth and longer conditions, but not enough to overcome the averages above. For new players, watch the races for a few days, noting how Oaklawn limits distances to just a few standard conditions, and in so doing, you will see these run styles emerge as this track takes not only speed, but sustained pace to get the job done.
I usually have a jockey watch list put together when the season starts, but this year it looks like quite a few new faces coming to town so for now the list is a short one… with a few key names on top:
Jamie Theriot, streaking along with Cole Norman as the top jockey/trainer combo on the circuit is expected to join up with the outfit as the season opens. Theriot has been working Fair Grounds this winter, not enjoying the success he's had in past seasons without the Norman express. That will change quickly.
Cliff Berry and Tim Doocy will be first call for the strongest of the Oklahoma contingents, Berry being a key rider for stakes-bound horses. Rodney Trader, a Hot Springs resident, rides the stronger entries for Stan Roberts and will occasionally get other calls, but when paired up with Roberts and his Highway One runners (the relationship goes way back), it's safe to assume that the connections feel that particular horse is the one with a shot.
I'd also expect to see Robert Williams back from the north country to take out some familiar Oklahoma and Louisiana horses and Williams did zoom in to the rider standings at Hoosier last fall for some stables that will make the trek down to Arkansas for the season. Hoosier horses perform very well at the spa, and Williams should have the best of those. Cindy Noll is always near the top of our list when riding for her Midwest connections. This Iowa farm gal, now one of the best female riders in the Midwest, is always worth a strong look when named on a pace setter.
We'll also mention once again what a fine job the track and maintenance crews do at Oaklawn. We're up in the foothills of the Ozarks in the springtime, and those folks have plenty of rainy days and vestiges of a Midwestern winter to contend with. Horsemen know that this track crew keeps this track as fair as possible but when a bias shows up (the most reliable is the speedy inside when it gets rainy), as soon as racing resumes after a break, that bias will suddenly disappear.
Play into it for the day, but toss it out as soon as that last race of the day goes official until it reappears.
Our best advice as always, for betting horses at Oaklawn, is to keep tabs on the trainers and highly consider early speed as your best handicapping factor. Learn from the local stables and watch those daily work tabs. Oaklawn's web site is extremely player-friendly and posts the workouts daily.
Be sure to check in on Trackmaster's Winner's Circle selector site, the on which this writer posts his daily race analysis, and keeps the Oaklawn “watch list” and other notes updates as the season progresses.
