Simulcasting, Instant Racing and Gaming Resume on Monday; Triple Points Day

GATES OPEN AT 11:00 A.M. ON MONDAY
INSTANT RACING/GAMING ROOM OPEN UNTIL 1:00 A.M.
TRIPLE POINTS DAY FOR WINNERS CIRCLE MEMBERS

Simulcasting, Instant Racing and Gaming resume at Oaklawn on Monday.  The simulcast schedule for Monday includes Delaware, Suffolk Downs, Finger Lakes, Thistledown, Pinnacle Park, Fairplex Park, Prairie Meadows, Mountaineer, Australian racing, the matinee greyhound races from Wheeling Downs and the late afternoon performance from Southland Greyhound Park.  It is Triple Points Day for all Winners Circle Club members. 

The popular Twin Quin game will be offered again on Thursday, September 11.  Players will be competing for $164 plus all the day's entry fees.

Our super food specials continue this week. Wednesdays have become Catfish Days and join the popular, delicious Steak Dinner on Friday evenings. If you're a member of the Winner's Circle Club, you can earn dramatically reduced prices for food specials.

The Catfish Wednesdays include yummy catfish filets, steak fries and scrumptious broccoli cole slaw from 4:30-10:00 p.m. You can enjoy the Catfish feast as an electronic games player if you have earned 5 points on your Winners Circle card that day.  Simulcast Winners Circle members may earn points towards the Catfish feast on Tuesdays. 

Deuce Day Drawings Sweeten September Wednesdays In IR/Gaming

It may already be Double Points Day in the Instant Racing/Gaming Room, but September Wednesdays will now be all the more fun with the introduction of the new “Deuce Days Drawings” on Wednesdays. 

Members of the Winners Circle must register between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and receive an entry, which is placed in the barrel inside the game room.  For those members, who have registered and are present at 2:22 p.m., there will be a drawing of five names, with each one that shows up within ten minutes receiving $222. 

In the unlikely event that none of the five cards pulled during the drawing respond with the ten minute deadline, there will be no prize money distributed on that day. However the lure of so many exciting promotions on September Wednesdays makes that prospect unlikely. 

In addition to the Double Deuce Giveaway, Wednesdays in the Instant Racing/Gaming Room offer $2 Minimum Blackjack games, $200 Bonuses on select Jackpots, a $2 Sandwich Special and ½ Price Drinks from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Double Points are available all day, as are 99-cent margaritas and strawberry daquiris and the chance to earn points towards the reduced price on the Wednesday Catfish Dinner special in the Carousel Terrace Restaurant. 

DRF Pigskins & Ponies Promotion Contines Sunday

The Daily Racing Form Pigskins and Ponies Match Game, one of the most popular promotions ever at Oaklawn Simulcast, continues on Sunday, September 14.

The Pigskins and Ponies Match Game allows patrons to win from $500 to $2,000, by requiring players to correctly solve matchups of horses running in specified races as well as matchups of NFL pro football games against the point spread. Entries must be submitted by 12:30 p.m. on Sunday to be eligible. Players may get an entry by presenting their Winner's Circle Club card to the Information Booth, across from the main elevator on the first floor of the grandstand.  They will be distributed (one per person) and completed entries will be returned to the Information Booth as well.

Those patrons not already in the Winner's Circle Club can do so free of charge by checking in with the Information Booth. However all Pigskins and Ponies entries need to be completed and turned in by 12:30 p.m.  There will be eight NFL games and six horse race matchups from Louisiana Downs on Sunday.

The player with the best card of the day collects a prize of $500. Should a player pick the card perfectly, there is a prize of $2,000 for winning. If there are two scratches in the horse races, necessitating the elimination of those horse race matchups, the bonus provision will not be in effect.  There is a tiebreaker, which requires you to estimate the win payoff for the winner of a designated race. No purchase is necessary to participate, however players must be present to win.

Oaklawn Handicapper's Hour Returns Sunday

The Resort Racing Network once again presents the Oaklawn Handicapper's Hour, a one-hour interactive call-in show, each Saturday morning through Breeders' Cup Day in late October.  The show next takes place on Saturday, September 13, and airs from 9:07-10:00 a.m. 

Track Announcer Terry Wallace will co-host the show with local radio personality Tom Nichols.  Each show focuses on racing, especially at Oaklawn, and has a guest from the racing industry. 

Fans may call in their handicapping selections (1-888-922-5880, toll free) for prizes in the weekly Longshot Handicapping Contest.  The Oaklawn Handicapper's Hour is reached in the Hot Springs through KVRE radio (92.9 FM) and is also available on the Internet at the Oaklawn website.  James from Olive Branch, Mississippi opened the month by picking Tough Tiz's Sis ($10.60) to win the Ruffian Handicap, race nine at Belmont Park and capture an Oaklawn cap, James also takes the lead in the battle for the monthly prize, a Daily Racing Form sweatshirt. 

Curlin Back to Winner's Circle in Woodward

Graveyard of Champions?  Saratoga was not going to live up to its reputation on Saturday afternoon as 2007 Arkansas Derby winner and Horse-of-the-Year, Curlin, overcame a rough run on the first turn and the "Ghosts of Saratoga" to score a length-and-a-quarter win in the $500,000 Woodward Stakes.  Saratoga has s history of defeats for some of the greatest horses in American racing history, including Man O' War and Secretariat, but Curlin was not going to be one of them on Saturday and the four-year-old who bounded into the national limelight in the spring of 2007 now stands just one race away from becoming the richest horse in racing history, an honor which belongs to another who caught national attention in an Oaklawn race, the 1995 Oaklawn Handicap, Cigar.

While Saturday's Woodward, at a mile-and-an-eighth, may not have been the most artistic of his wins, for Curlin the race allowed him to display his remarkable versatility, something which will be recanted in racing's historical chronicles for decades to come.  After a comparatively sharp break, he was carried wide into the first turn between Divine Park and Out of Control.  He cleared that pair by midway down the backstretch, but was well back of the remarkable pacesetter, 40-1 shot Past the Point.  That colt sped through the first six furlongs in 1:09 1/5, but showed no signs of letting up.  As stout a runner as Wanderin Boy was unable to catch up through those fast fractions and Curlin needed to begin his run much earlier than jockey Robby Albarado would have liked.

Nevertheless Curlin closed that gap resolutely and would reach a challenging point in the upper stretch.  He caught Past the Point in midstretch and then just used enough of himself to get to the wire comfortably in front after nine furlongs in 1:49 1/5, almost a second faster than he clocked in winning the 2007 Arkansas Derby.

For Curlin the win was his tenth from 14 starts and took his earnings to $9,796,800.  Cigar stands number one in career earnings at $9,999,815, a figure which Curlin can easily surpass in his next likely start, the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on September 27.  Last year he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup with a spectacular stretch run that allowed him to catch another Oaklawn star, 2006 Arkansas Derby and 2007 Oaklawn Handicap winner, Lawyer Ron.

more>>

Hystericalady, Ginger Punch Win Major Stakes

Two of the most important distaffers to run at Oaklawn during the 2008 live thoroughbred season, Hystericalady and Ginger Punch, scored major wins over the past weekend and set themselves on a course that should lead directly towards Breeders' Cup weekend at Santa Anita.

Both the the Oaklawn-raced ladies competed on the East Coast this weekend.  Hystericalady easily captured the $300,000 Molly Pitcher Breeders' Cup Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday, while Ginger Punch was fully extended to outlast another Oaklawn-raced filly, Lemon Drop Mom in taking the $400,000 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Friday afternoon.

Hystericalady, who won the Azeri Breeders' Cup at Oaklawn this year, won as easily as she pleased under jockey Robby Albarado, taking the Molly Pitcher by eight lengths, a repeat of her win in the same race in 2007.  Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, who also won this year's Oaklawn Handicap with Heatseeker, Hystericalady came into the Molly Pitcher with wins also in the Fleur De Lys Handicap at Churhcill Downs and the Delaware Handicap and continued her dominating style.

Hollendorfer noted that his mare may make a start in the Lady's Secret Stakes at Santa Anita on September 27, to familiarize herself with the synthetic track.  Otherwise, she will head directly to the Breeders' Cup and the Ladies Stakes, the new name of the former Breeders' Cup Distaff.  That race will head the card at Santa Anita on the Friday of Breeders' Cup weekend, October 24.  She now sports a record of 11 wins from 21 starts and earnings of $2,290,556.

But Hystericalady must still face the prospect of facing Ginger Punch, who defeated her by a neck in the Breeders' Cup Distaff in 2007.  While Ginger Punch finished third in her Oaklawn appearance, the Apple Blossom Handicap, behind Zenyatta and Brownie Points, the Bobby Frankel trainee has regained form as of late and had just enough left to capture her fourth consecutive stakes race in Friday's Personal Ensign. 

With Rafael Bejarano once again aboard, the five-year-old daughter of Awesome Again nosed out the improving Lemon Drop Mom in a controversial photo finish.  This win marked the 12th in 20 starts for Ginger Punch and her first at a mile-and-a-quarter.  The earnings for the 2007 Eclipse Award winner have now reached $2,945,603 and she, too is set for a rematch in the Breeders' Cup Ladies.

Jonesboro, Maren's Meadow Score Stakes Wins

Mike Langford's Jonesboro, winner of the Razorback Handicap and second in the Essex Handicap at Oaklawn this year, got back on the winning track on Saturday as he staked the pace, then drove away to a three-and-a-quarter lengths victory in the $50,000 Governor's Handicap at Ellis Park.

A six-year-old son of Sefapiano oujt of the champion mare Mom's Command, Jonesboro was tallying the 10th win of his career from 31 starts and raised his earnings to $738,575, getting most of that the hard way, racing in lesser stakes races around the middle part of America.  The hard-knocking Randy Morse trainee is a tribute to the willingness of his owner and trainer to give the horse time to recover from injury and come back as a racehorse, rather than being rushed off to the breeding shed.

Jonesboro has been a real star at Oaklawn in spite of injuries which might have ended the career of a less resiliant individual.  He captured the Northern Spur at Oaklawn as a three-year-old in 2005, sat out most of 2006.  Came back to win the Essex Handicap and finish third behind Magna Graduate and Student Council in the Razorback Handicap, both in 2007, then returned from another injury for his good outings at Oaklawn this year.

The other important element to Jonesboro's success is his adaptability.  He has learned to lay off the pace, although he was a one-dimensional speed horse in his earlier years.  Saturday's win was accomplished over talented rivals like Save Big Money, Officer Rocket and Delightful Kiss, suggesting that there is more in the tank for the handsome chestnut runner is he can avoid further injury.  He was ridden on Saturday by Tracy Hebert and travelled the one mile distance in 1:34 4/5.

Maren's Meadow, meanwhile, comes from the barn of trainer Larry Jones and has had to race in the shadow of the talented twosome of Eight Belles and Proud Spell through most of her career.  On Saturday she went to the front under Oaklawn regular rider Terry Thompson and never looked back in taking the $150,000 Monmouth Oaks at the Jersey Shore track.

Second, behind Sky Mom, in a division of the Martha Washington at Oaklawn this spring, the daughter of Meadowlake followed up that race with a win in the Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway Park before a disappointing effort in the mud at Pimlico in the Black Eyed Susan when she lost a shoe during the running of the race.  Following a two-month layoff and a loss to stablemate Proud Spell in the Delaware Oaks, Saturday's race was all about Maren's Meadow and she didn't disappoint.  Her final winning margin was four-and-a-half lengths as she got the mile-and-a-sixteenth in 1:44.

The win by Maren's Meadow took her career mark to four wins from 11 starts with earnings of $297,225.  She will likely return to Turfway Park for the Kentucky Cup Distaff Stakes on September 27.

"Oaklawn" Fillies Shine on Saturday; Zenyatta Stays Undefeated

Headed by Apple Blossom Handicap winner Zenyatta's win in the Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar, fillies which raced at Oaklawn were the stars of racing both in the United States and Canada on Saturday afternoon.  Zenyatta, well on her way to an Eclipse Award as the top Filly or Mare of the Year, was joined by Martha Washington winner Sky Mom and hard-hitting Tim Ritchey trainee Akronism as stakes winners in Saturday action.

For Zenyatta the win at Del Mar on Saturday reestablished her dominance in the filly and mare division following a less impressive win at Hollywood Park in the Vanity Handicap.  Utilizing her come-from-behind style, the John Sherriffs trainee allowed the others in the field to set things up, then she responded for regular jockey Mike Smith, passing the field with a great surge and was pretty much eased to the finish to score by one length in track record time of 1:41.2 for the mile-and-an-eighth over the synthetic surface.

The win marked the seventh in a row for the undefeated superstar, taking her career earnings to $914,580, virtually assuring that she will become a racing millionaire in her next start. 

A daughter of Street Cry, sire also of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, Zenyatta certainly impressed her animated jockey Smith.  "I think it's great for the sport that we have one like her," he noted.  "The other riders all know her; she's such a great, bit target you can't miss her.  And they all rode to try to beat her.  But it was fair and square and it was classy.  Her last race was one of her 'C' races.  She didn't run that well.  But she still got it done.  Today was one of her 'A' races.  She was just galloping.  I know she set a track record here, but if I'd have let her go, no telling what she might have done."

more>>

Trainer David Vance Gets Career Win 3,000

Trainer David Vance, who set the racing world on fire in the decade of the '70s when training for America's leading owner, Dan Lasater, managed to pass another important milestone in his career when he won the 3,000th race of his training career with a victory by Westside in the first race at Presque Isle Downs on Saturday afternoon.

Vance captured four Oaklawn training titles (1972-4 and 1976) as he made his mark in American training annals.
He has had many stakes winners.  He has enjoyed one Eclipse Award winner, champion two-year-old filly Caressing in 2000, but may have had his most enjoyable moments with Royal Glint, one of racing's first millionaires and the runner-up in one of the most memorable races ever at Oaklawn, the 1976 Oaklawn Handicap.  On that day he and 1975 Preakness winner Master Derby engaged in a virtual match race in stakes record time of 1:41.3 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth distance.  (The Oaklawn Handicap has since been extended to a mile-and-an-eighth).

David was seriously injured in a automobile accident late in 2007 in northern Kentucky and is on the mend now.  Victory 3,000 should be a big help.  He won five races from 34 starters at the 2008 Oaklawn meet.

Tres Borrachos In Swaps Stakes Upset

Tres Borrachos, who chased Gayego home in the Arkansas Derby after setting the pace to the head of the stretch, used the strategy of stalking the pace on Saturday to spring an upset in the $355,495 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park.  Winning for just the second time in his career, Tres Borrachos drove through on the side of race favorites, Two Steps Salsa and Colonel John, who finished second and third, respectively.

Jockey Tyler Baze, who rode Tres Borrachos in both the Arkansas Derby and Swaps Stakes, is coming off a hot streak which included victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup with the speedy Mast Track and his marriage to fiancee Cynthia Waugh.  Baze, who won three races on the Saturday card was full of excitement following the race.  "It's a great feeling being able to finish the meet off with a nice stakes win like this.  Ever since I got married, everything's been clicking.  This week has been just awesome." 

The final winning margin for Tres Borrachos was a length-and-a-quarter and he more than doubled his earnings. He has now won two of 10 starts and bankrolled $398,300.  He is trained by Beau Greely, who co-owns the horse with his brother, John, and Phil Houchens.  Brad Scott has also recently joined the ownership of the talented gelding, whose name translates to "Three Drunks" in Spanish.

more>>