Corned beef and TVG
HOT SPRINGS — A day ahead of 50-cent corned beef sandwiches, Oaklawn opened its 108th season to a crowd of 18,087 at the park and thousands more watching on the TVG network, shown at simulcast outlets and in dens around the world.
The agreement with the network is the first for Oaklawn since 2006 when TVG left over a disagreement on exclusivity.
New track announcer Frank Mirahmadi said he believes all Oaklawn races will be shown live this season on the network. Oaklawn races often were tape delayed last season on another industry-specific network, HRTV.
Corned beef sandwiches were still a hit on opening day, even with the $6 price tag.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Mirahmadi’s first day
HOT SPRINGS — Frank Miramhadi was decked out in a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and tie in the pressbox Friday at Oaklawn as he prepared for his first day as the new track announcer, replacing the legendary Terry Wallace.
As he watched the clock before the race day began, he cleaned his binoculars by breathing on the lenses and wiping with a cloth.
Mirahmadi stood in the window where Wallace called races for 34 seasons and welcomed patrons to the first day of racing at Oaklawn Park, announcing scratches and weight changes for the program.
He said he was enjoying just soaking everything in on his first day of racing. Asked about nerves before the first race, Mirahmadi said, “I just don’t want to butcher it.”
He didn’t, correctly calling Run Mama Beare Run the winner in a photo even though the finish line for the one-mile race was up the track from his location.
Top jockeys at Oaklawn
HOT SPRINGS — Cliff Berry, the leading jockey at Oaklawn last season, is back to defend his crown, but with plenty of all-star competition.
A two-time leading rider, Terry Thompson, is another early favorite to earn the top-jockey honors, but the competition also includes top New York rider Channing Hill and French sensation Florent Geroux. Hill had three mounts on opening day; Thompson was scheduled in five races and Berry was to ride four horses. Geroux, who arrived at Oaklawn only Wednesday, had no scheduled mounts on opening day.
A different day for Wallace
Longtime track announcer Terry Wallace wasn’t behind the microphone calling races at Oaklawn Park Friday, but he remained the most recognizable figure at the park.
Wallace left the booth after 34 years at Oaklawn and is now working in a Mr. Oaklawn-type role at the park, greeting guests and talking racing with patron.
“It’s a little different, but it’s still people that love racing; that’s what I do.”
Wallace said early in the day that he had already met several people eye-to-eye that he had talked to or exchanged emails with, but had never met.
His picks are still available to those at the park and he even writes a blog on the Oaklawn website.
This girl ‘On Fire Baby’
HOT SPRINGS — There was more girl talk than usual at Oaklawn Park as the season opened Friday for the first of 56 scheduled days of live racing.
The talk centered on On Fire Baby, the 3-year-old filly who went three-for-four as a 2-year-old, including two Grade II stakes races at Churchill Downs — the Golden Rod Stakes and the Pocahontas Stakes.
The Anita Cauley-owned filly breezed 7 furlongs at 1:29 2/5 in her final workout on Wednesday in what may have been her final major workout before meeting the males in Monday’s $100,000 Smarty Jones Stakes.
The Smarty Jones will be the feature on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, one of two Monday cards this season at Oaklawn.
It will be the 3-year-old debut for the daughter of Smoke Glacken.
Fletcher’s filly set for today’s Dixie Belle Stakes
HOT SPRINGS — Frank Fletcher of Little Rock, known for owning car dealerships, is making a name for himself in thoroughbred racing. His filly Rocket Twentyone is scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in today’s Dixie Belle Stakes.
As a 2-year-old, Rocket Twentyone got off to a big start by winning the Arlington-Washington Classic last summer in Chicago, but a disappointing run followed in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies when she drew the rail and got caught up in a lot of traffic on a nasty day at Churchill Downs.