Mountain Valley Stakes, a Great End to a Successful February
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wrapping up the month of February, Oaklawn hosted the first snow flurries of the season, but as cold as the north wind was on Saturday, the stretch run of the 69th running of the Mountain Valley Stakes provided some red-hot action as the longest shot on the board, Naveed Chowhan & L.T.B. Inc.'s Citizen, sent off at 29-1, held off the late charges of Grand Slam Farm's Flying Private and J. Kirk Robison's Lyin' Heart to capture the six furlongs dash before a chilled crowd of 15,273 on Saturday afternoon.
The $50,000 Mountain Valley Stakes has best been remembered as the starting spot for Cash Is King's Afleet Alex on his Triple Crown trail in 2005. On Saturday there were two Triple Crown nominees in the eight-horse field and they were the pair who made the late run at Citizen, only to come up just short. Flying Private's rally finished just a head behind Citizen, while Lyin' Heart was another three-quarters of a length further back in third. Lyin' Heart was just a neck in front of the 6-5 favorite, Frank Fletcher Racing Operations' Dance Caller. With the $300,000 Rebel Stakes at a mile-and-a-sixteenth coming up at Oaklawn in two weeks, on Saturday, March 14, it remains to be seen if any of these will try the talented Old Fashioned and others in that important step on the Triple Crown trail.
For Citizen, however, this was a big race. Winner of the Meadowlake Stakes at Hawthorne in late October, the son of City Zip-Rachel's Star was coming off a disappointing three-race campaign at Fair Grounds. Trained by former Oaklawn training titleist, Bernie Flint, Citizen was paired up with Jon Court for Saturday's race and found himself in a pace duel with Big Push, N.Y. Wise Guy and Doc Posse through the first half mile. He opened up a clear lead at the head of the stretch, but needed to have something left after the tussle into the strong head wind on the backstretch. While Flying Private and Lyin' Heart dug in for the drive, they could not quite get up, even though the were full of run at the wire. The final time for the six furlongs in the windy conditions was 1:11.3, over a fast track.
One thing that is not in question at Oaklawn is the successful start that Oaklawn Park has enjoyed to its 2009 season, in the face of dreadful econmic times. "We could never had anticipated doing as well as we have," noted track General Manager, Eric Jackson. Jackson's comparison of the past 18 days of racing, "trying to compare apples to apples", shows that Oaklawn's attendance has jumped 8% and the live racing mutuel handle jumped 4%. There is no question that more cooperative weather has played a part in the early successes. In 2008 Arkansas experienced a Spring season which involved some of the most serious tornado and severe thunderstorm damage in the state's history.
However the most severe ice storm on record did strike the northern third of Arkansas earlier in February and there are still some customers without power in that area as the month of February draws to a close.
Oaklawn's gaming department, which has contributed over $17 million to purses for live racing since the beginning of the millenium, has also enjoyed a significant increase in activity. The popular Instant Racing System has shown an increase of 13% through the month, while the Electronic Games of Skill, with a very limited number of stations available, nevertheless has recorded a jump of 6%. Oaklawn is preparing a 53,000 square foot expansion to the gaming area for a grand opening in mid-May.
"We are in the middle of a severe recession, in one of the poorest states in the country and just got annihilated by one of the worst winter ice storms on record," noted Jackson. "I doubt if there is a racetrack, racino, casino, resort, cruise ship, ski slope or any other travel/tourism entity that can say the same."