Southern California Trainers Planning Oaklawn Invasion

[Wandering Eyes]

Santa Anita was never the type of place anyone wanted to leave. With great weather, good purses, a turf course and racing held in the midst of one of the most majestic settings in the sport, it was the type of place where some of America’s best horsemen settled in, content to compete there year-round.

But racing’s changing landscape, combined with the uncertainty facing Southern California racing since a rash of breakdowns earlier this year at Santa Anita, have several top trainers on the circuit ready to send strings to Oaklawn Park for the winter and spring. The TDN has confirmed that at least seven top California trainers will be sending strings this year to the Hot Springs, Arkansas track. The list includes Peter Eurton, Richard Baltas, John Sadler, Phil D’Amato, Doug O’Neill, Peter Miller and Jerry Hollendorfer. Hollendorfer did not have many other options as he has been banned from competing at Santa Anita by the track’s owners, The Stronach Group.

The job of luring California trainers to Oaklawn became a bit easier when the track hired Rick Hammerle to serve as its racing coordinator. Hammerle was the racing secretary at Santa Anita until being dismissed late in 2018 and has strong ties to most Southern California horsemen.

None of the trainers will be abandoning Santa Anita all together and most will be sending 20 horses or fewer to Oaklawn. But many felt it was important to begin to lay the foundation at a track outside of Southern California, where a rash of breakdowns earlier this year led to uncertainty about the sport’s future.

“For me, the surface at Santa Anita is fine and I think things will continue on as normal, at least over the next couple of years,” Eurton said. “But there is a lot of uncertainty and the owners are worried. Without getting too knee jerk, it’s important to see what your options are. Considering the situation here in Southern California, you can’t get too complacent.”

Eurton said he will send seven or eight horses to Oaklawn. The string will not include his GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Storm the Court (Court Vision), but he could ship in for any of Oaklawn’s rich prep races for the GI Kentucky Derby. D’Amato plans on sending about 15. O’Neill is planning on sending between 12 and 15 horses. Miller will send about 20.

“We left and took horses to Kentucky when the crisis happened earlier in the year at Santa Anita,” Miller said. “We were one of the first out and were lucky to get a barn of 20 stalls at Churchill. There doesn’t seem to be any proper leadership out in California and they don’t seem to have a real plan. I felt it was necessary for myself and my owners to be ahead of the curve and establish a Midwest, Kentucky, Oaklawn string.”

The 2020 Oaklawn meet begins Jan. 24 and concludes May 2. There will be 57 days of racing with purses that will average about $600,000 a day, much of the money coming from casino revenues. Santa Anita cannot match Oaklawn’s purses, and Baltas said that was the main reason some of his owners wanted to take horses to Hot Springs.

“I do have some owners that are pushing me to send horse there because of the purses,” Baltas said. “There are different kinds of owners. There are owners in it for the money and there are owners that are in it for the racing.”

Baltas will send about 10 horses to Oaklawn, and admitted he is doing so reluctantly.

“I’m totally behind California racing, 100%,” he said. “I’m from California and I believe we have some of the best horses in the country here and I don’t want to leave. I want to support California racing 100%. Sometimes, purse money doesn’t come into effect, like when you are developing a young horse, and sometimes it does.”

The main advantage Santa Anita has over Oaklawn is its turf course. Trainer Mark Glatt said that was one the reasons he will be staying at Santa Anita after being allotted stalls at Oaklawn.

“It just wasn’t going to work out for me from a logistics standpoint this year to send horses to Oaklawn, mostly because it’s tough when you can’t take any turf horses,” Glatt said.

Some will take their horses away from Santa Anita without making much noise. Some will not. In an interview last week with the TDN, O’Neill had harsh words for track management. So did Miller, who questioned why Santa Anita has not given the go-ahead to installing a synthetic track.

“If all the concern about safety was genuine, they would put a synthetic racetrack in and they’d cut race dates,” he said. “I could fix the problem in 10 seconds. Put in a proper synthetic racetrack and cut race dates. The problem with that is that it costs money. It’s free to blame trainers. It’s free to blame veterinarians or the weather. To actually move the needle, to actually right the ship, is going to cost money and they don’t seem to want to do that.”

It won’t be just California trainers who are setting up shop in Hot Springs. Shug McGaughey is bringing in a string of horses owned by John Ed Anthony and East Coast regular Jeremiah Englehart has also said he will be bringing a group of horses to Oaklawn. They’ll have to contend with Oaklawn regulars like Steve Asmussen, the odds-on favorite to be leading trainer. Throw the California trainers into the mix and never before has Oaklawn had a stronger contingent of horsemen.

“It’s going to be crowded there and there are going to be a lot of good horsemen there,” Baltas said. “I don’t think the money is going to be as easy to get your hands on as people think. But I’m just trying to keep everybody happy.”

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