Louis Cella on the First Saturday in May ... at Oaklawn

When Oaklawn Park wraps up its meeting May 2, going out with a bang by offering a talent-laden Arkansas Derby (G1) that has been split into two divisions, it will bring down the curtain on a unique meeting that has provided a landing spot for horsemen and a needed diversion for horseplayers.

The meet has continued, without fans, at a time when many tracks have closed for racing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Arkansas Derby was moved to the first Saturday in May to fill the void of the postponed Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs. The card will conclude a 57-day stand in which the track awards some $30 million in purses.

Oaklawn Park president Louis Cella talked with BloodHorse features editor Frank Angst about the unique meeting; the huge effort by the track, horsemen, and others to put it all together; the big closing Saturday; and what the future may hold.

BH: How proud are you of your team and the horsemen for pulling off this meet?

LC: The bottom line is that we are a team: Oaklawn, the horsemen, and the racing commission. If we all didn't really agree to all of these things and meet the requirements to jump through all the hoops, we would not be able to do it.

We challenged the horsemen a month ago when this all bubbled up and said, 'Look, you guys are on the front lines and need to get your grooms and your assistants and your owners to be prepared to have your temperature taken every single day. All of the equipment has to be disinfected every single day. When horses come in from out of state, they have to immediately be washed, and all of the equipment has to be disinfected.'

We've tested over 800 people every single day, and it's not just the backstretch workers, it's the racing office—everyone here. We also have color-coded bracelets. If you're walking around in an area and have the wrong color, security will stop you and an EMT will take your temperature right then and there. If it's over our threshold, you go home.

We take it very seriously.

And, by the way, our governor, Asa Hutchinson, is pro-business, and he understands how important our Thoroughbred business is on a national level, much less a regional level. So it was a thoughtful decision on his part to allow us to open without fans as long as we showed him our plans of what we were going to do: We're going to spend a ton of money and jump through a lot of hoops to make sure it's safe for everyone. He had confidence that Oaklawn would do that, and here we are.

It's really everyone in Arkansas, starting at the top with the governor, the racing commission, management here, and the horsemen; we're all working together.

BH: How much effort was required to put those protocols in place and then carry them out?

LC: It took us a while, and we sort of cut and pasted from other operations and various businesses. We asked ourselves what we could do at Oaklawn that is reasonable. But, more importantly, what works. This is new to everyone. 

So we took the most stringent requirements that we could come up with—that we could also facilitate—and put them in place. Now everyone is kind of looking at us asking, 'How did you guys do it?' Well, we went into the deep end with both feet and had the most stringent protocols that anyone could imagine, and it works. Now, that doesn't mean that you couldn't do fewer of those items and still have it work.

And it evolved. At first, we didn't have our assistant starters wearing masks. Some other tracks started doing that, and we thought that was an easy change, so we did it, too. 

For those tracks reopening, or on the cusp of reopening, our industry has done a lot of things over the past 30 or 45 days. We've all been on a very, very steep learning curve. So going forward, a lot of these other tracks can benefit from that.

BH: Why was it important to take that stringent approach?

LC: No one knew, certainly at that time when this started, what was before us. We didn't know what this pandemic meant. We didn't know what we know today; so we took a position of being extremely cautious because of these unknowns. We acknowledged that maybe it wouldn't work, and we'd have to change or close. Fortunately for us, it worked.

BH: Have you heard from other tracks that are running and others interested in your protocol for their own benefit?

LC: Oh yeah, we communicate with the Tampa Bay Downs guys and the Santa Anita Park people. We all kind of trade ideas on what they're trying, what we're doing, those sorts of things.

BH: How proud are you of the Oaklawn team, the horsemen, and the regulator for pulling this all together?

LC: We would not have our two divisions of the Arkansas Derby on May 2 if we all did not work together. So there is tremendous pride, and it really shows, frankly, in our industry. Arkansas is a little unique—and we tend to pound our chest a little—because management, the horsemen, and the racing commission, we all sort of get along together. We don't really have agendas. So we can very easily sit at a table and say, 'Look, here's the problem facing us. What is the resolution?' If we can't all work together, it's not worth it and we're wasting our time sitting around the table.

When we did Instant Racing back in 2000, it was kind of the same approach. That's remarkable in itself that we've been doing this now for 20 years—we've had that kind of relationship for over 20 years. It started with Instant Racing when we sat around the table and we said,  'Look, the margins aren't great enough; if any one side of the triangle—if the racing commission, meaning the state, gets a little greedy, if the horsemen get a little greedy, if management gets a little greedy—the whole thing gets tossed out the window.' Without that understanding, it wasn't going to work. It's as simple as that.

We've all gotten along. Yes, we have discussions and disagreements, but we're big boys and big girls and we sit around and work it out. That's why we're so proud to put on the show this Saturday. If we did not have that kind of respect for one another, it would not work.

BH: That leads to my next question. How gratifying is it to see all that teamwork come together to put on this unique Arkansas Derby, which has had so much support from horsemen with 11 entries in each division?

LC: It's great seeing the support from horsemen from across the country. The California guys don't have to do this, or the horsemen from New York or Florida. The bottom line is—and this is really what motivated us to start this—back in the fall, the connections of all the 2-year-olds circled the first Saturday in May; they all dream of the first Saturday in May. We get to the first Saturday in May this year, and it's all upside down. We sat around and said, 'You know what, it's not really fair for all of these great Thoroughbreds who have circled the first Saturday in May to run in the Kentucky Derby to not have a venue just to see what they can do.' 

So I called up Churchill and we had a very candid discussion, and Churchill embraced it; they said, 'You're right, the first Saturday in May is so special for these 3-year-olds. We certainly acknowledge that they are in a bind by moving the Kentucky Derby to September.' So this was an opportunity for Churchill to say, 'Yes, this is great for racing,' and in terms of the Kentucky Derby points, they permitted us to lower the purse (because of the divisions) and still reward full qualifying points (100-40-20-10 for both divisions) because it's the best thing for our 3-year-olds this time of year."

This is a good story for racing. Here's an example of racetracks—two racetracks—and horsemen working together on what is best for the industry, what's best for the first Saturday in May. This is what we came up with, and that's kind of neat.

BH: This is the second consecutive year that Oaklawn has stepped in to fill a need—both times offering a top stakes for 3-year-olds that was so popular, it was split into two divisions, following last year's Rebel Stakes (G2) that provided a place for displaced Southern California-based horses to run. Why has it been important for Oaklawn to fill that role?

LC: We're honored to do it. We don't seek out that role. It's simply been the time of year we run, and this year has been bananas. When we initially moved the Arkansas Derby to May 2, part of the thinking—we didn't know then what all was before us—was that if there would be an opportunity to open to fans, somewhere at the end of the season would be our best chance. It just happened to turn out to be May 2.

As tracks closed and Derby prep races were postponed, we were able to fill that role. Last year, Santa Anita had issues with the track, and it made sense on our calendar to step up. What's unique and fun for us at Oaklawn is that we're in a position to step up. We're family-owned, we don't have shareholders. This is not a good economic decision by any stretch—last year or this year—but because we're able to have that ability to step up to the plate, we're honored to do so.

BH: Unfortunately, we've seen tracks with added gaming and the casino-type product overwhelm the racing product. That has certainly not been the case at Oaklawn as it has stayed committed to its racing, using added gaming as a complement. Why has that been the approach?

LC: It starts with the family at the top. We believe in racing first. That's been a generational approach, and it's kind of neat. 

It's something that we advocate to all of our employees. We started a number of years ago with 'OJCU' or 'Oaklawn Jockey Club University.' We take our new managers up, and for a few weeks—a day a week for several weeks in a row—we put on a class to show, not about gaming, but only racing. It ends with everyone going to a local farm and seeing the horses. It is amazing that everyone who has gone through this program says, 'I had no idea that racing was so important here.' We really focus with all of our new employees and all our older employees that it will always be racing first.

We believe in the sport, and we believe that if we put on great competition, we're going to be tremendously successful. We're fortunate enough to do it. I'm not going to kid anyone—it's because we have the casino gaming that can add to our purses. But if we focus on the racing, it's going to be good, and it has been good so far.

BH: From a business perspective, do you feel like the racing gives you something unique as an attraction?

LC: When we're able to open the infield—not so much this year, but when we're able to open it—we encourage the families and the children to have fun. We sell the sport of Thoroughbreds, the fun, the pageantry of the racing. That's what gets people excited about it. We want them to come and enjoy a nice day, the racing, have a hot dog and a Coke—that's what we're selling. If we do a good job of that on the fun part of it, they're going to come back and become bigger fans.

BH: How has COVID-19 and new policies affected your plans for an expanded casino and the hotel?

LC: The gaming expansion we concluded on Valentine's Day, so we were open all of a month before we had to close it (laughter). The hotel is still on schedule (tentatively for December this year or January 2021), remarkably. We actually closed down construction for three weeks when this thing first bubbled up because we didn't know what it was all about. But they've started back up and assured us that we're still on schedule.

We're moving forward, but it is unsettling because we don't know how long this stuff is going to be around and how long it's going to impact our business. As I said earlier, it's not a good business decision from management's perspective to keep racing open with no casino, no gift shop, no reserved seats, no box seats. On our Derby Day, we typically have 60,000 or 70,000 people, but we won't have any of that—it's a big goose egg. So we're taking it on the chin, but we're taking it on the chin this year because it's really what is best for racing.

BH: From a financial standpoint, what is the goal of the continued racing?

LC: It is some handle, and, frankly, that's generating purses for next year. We're not going to see the benefit of that handle this year. The gaming being cut back, that's going to affect purses next year. Our lost on-track business this year is going to cut into purses next year, so it's a big unknown.

We're very concerned about how this is going to impact our next live season, and we won't know for several months. With this pandemic, if it works itself out, we'll point in one direction. If it doesn't go away any time soon, we'll have a real serious problem.

BH: How proud do you think your grandfather and father would be of pulling off this meet and putting this May 2 card together? (Cella is the third generation of his family to guide the track, following in the footsteps of his late grandfather John and late father, Charles.)

LC: Dad always had a flair. He tried to get the Rachel Alexandra-Zenyatta race together. He was successful with Smarty Jones and the $5 million bonus. I learned from a pretty good teacher in him to be creative.

It's not a gimmick, by the way, if you can pull it off for the good of the sport. That's the bottom line. If you can pull off something and it's good for the sport, then good for you.

I think when I decided to split the Rebel last year, and this year when we decided to call Churchill Downs and see if we could (move the Arkansas Derby to May 2), it wasn't because we wanted to see Oaklawn in the paper. It was for the good of the sport. Because we're able to do this, we will get some media coverage for sure, but that's not the motivation. The motivation is, 'What can we do to showcase the best 3-year-olds that are out there and, unfortunately, don't have a venue to race?'