Oaklawn Park Puts Arkansas in the Big Leagues

Cella has been a survivor and an innovator since assuming ownership of the track in 1968 following the sudden death of his father from a stroke. The man known around Oaklawn simply as CJC was just 31 when he took over Southern Real Estate and Financial Co. and the family’s other enterprises.

William J. Smith, a prominent Little Rock attorney, had been one of John Cella’s best friends. Smith began advising Charles Cella, becoming almost like a second father to him. Smith, a Texarkana native, earlier had served as a senior adviser to four governors — Homer Adkins, Ben Laney, Francis Cherry and Orval Faubus. Smith’s law partner, Herschel Friday, later would play the role of strategic adviser and political fixer for Charles Cella.

It’s rare in the 21^st century to find a family-owned track, but Charles Cella plans to continue the tradition in Hot Springs under the leadership of his sons, John and Louis. Oaklawn has survived the casino competition from neighboring states even though it was the last track in the country to add exotic forms of wagering since Charles Cella is a traditionalist at heart. Once the line was crossed, though, Oaklawn became an innovator in areas such as simulcasting races from other tracks and adding electronic games. In 1990, Oaklawn became the first North American track to bring full simulcasting cards across state lines. A decade later, the Instant Racing video game was introduced.

Oaklawn now has a large electronic gambling area, a buffet, a separate video poker room and more. The video games technically are “electronic games of skill,” a designation that allows the track to get around the ban on casinos in the Arkansas Constitution. Legislation was approved in 2005 to allow these games at Oaklawn and at the Southland Park greyhound track in West Memphis. Each track won local votes to legalize the games in 2006.

“Our job, in my opinion, is to make sure racing remains the main attraction here,” Charles Cella once told me. “Not for one minute will I tolerate cutting back on what we do in the area of racing in order to promote gaming.”

One of Cella’s best innovations is the Racing Festival of the South, which he began in 1974. The festival includes a series of stakes races during the final week of racing each year, culminating in the Arkansas Derby. The Cella idea that paid off the most in terms of national publicity came three decades later in 2004. Charles Cella announced that any 3-year-old that could sweep the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, the Arkansas Derby and the Kentucky Derby would win a bonus of $5 million in celebration of Oaklawn’s centennial year. Along came Smarty Jones.

Several years ago, I attended a banquet sponsored by the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association. Maggi Moss, a former trial lawyer from Des Moines who gave up practicing law to concentrate on the thoroughbreds she owns, was the speaker that night. She made clear that she was in love with Oaklawn Park.

She described Belmont Park in New York, with its surly race fans, as a “hostile work environment.”

She described Santa Anita Park in California as “beautiful but there is no one there.”

She described Oaklawn as “the greatest racetrack in America. The enthusiasm here is unlike any other place in the country.”

We live in a state without a Major League Baseball team, an NFL team, an NBA team or an NHL team. Thoroughbred racing is the one professional sport in which Arkansas is truly in the big leagues.

Bring on The Fifth Season.

Download the Oaklawn 2013 Racing Guide.

Oaklawn Racing & Gaming website.