Duramax, owned by Militza Elliott of Sly Dog Ranch in Sallisaw, gets a morning gallop at Blue Ribbon Downs and is one of about 300 horses being trained at Sallisaw Equine Training Center LLC at the Sallisaw racetrack. Trainer Hubert Blankenship points out that even though Blue Ribbon Downs does not host live racing any more, the track is still an economic asset to the community.
Linda Copeland • TIMES
Dick Clark, in the pickup truck, and Hubert Blankenship, both horse trainers, watch morning gallops at the Sallisaw Equine Training Center at Blue Ribbon Downs. Clark brings his Thoroughbreds from Iowa to train in Oklahoma’s more temperate climate. Blankenship said trainers from throughout the country have found Blue Ribbon Downs a good place to train, and are helping the community’s economy.
Linda Copeland • TIMES
It’s the Sallisaw Equine Training Center LLC at the Cherokee-owned Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw.
Dick Clark, an Iowa Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer, (not Dick Clark the music man) brought 57 horses and $170,000 to the training facility this winter to condition, something he couldn’t do in cold and snow-bound Altoona, Iowa, where Prairie Meadows racetrack is located. That will give him a leg up on his competition when he goes back to Prairie Meadows next month for the April 20 opening at Prairie Meadows.
Until then, Clark will be pumping all that money into Sallisaw’s economy – at feed stores, motels and restaurants.
“I always go south to get them ready to run,” Clark said Monday. “We can’t train back home.
“This is my first time here,” he said about the Sallisaw track.
Clark said that in past years he trained his charges in Texas, Arkansas or Louisiana tracks, but then he found Blue Ribbon Downs.
“I came and looked at it and liked it. This must be the best kept secret in the world.”
Clark said he also brought 11 employees — gallop boys and grooms — along with his 57 horses. The employees are staying at Sallisaw motels and eating at Sallisaw restaurants. The horses are fed through area feed stores.
Clark, who passed the 1,000-win mark in 2004 and who is in the Prairie Meadows Hall of Fame, has been Prairie Meadows Trainer of the Meet 19 times.
His stakes-placed filly, Ginger Added, is his best bet for the 2012 meet. Ginger Added captured two stakes wins last year.
Clark isn’t the only racehorse trainer who has found the training facility at Blue Ribbon Downs. Hubert Blankenship, who has trained at Blue Ribbon Downs for years, said trainers from throughout the country, from Alaska to Missouri, have found the training track where they can avoid the cold, ice and snow of northern states. They are also in a central location, in driving distance of Oak Lawn Park at Hot Springs, Ark., Remington Park in Oklahoma City and Will Rogers Downs, also owned by the Cherokee Nation, in Claremore.
The trainers get a reasonable rate — $3 a day per horse — and a good track to train on. Clark said the track surface is in good shape.
Tom Parnell, manager of the training facility, said 300 stalls at Blue Ribbon Downs are under contract, of the 800 available.
Blankenship said he wants the community to know that Blue Ribbon Downs, Oklahoma’s first pari-mutuel racetrack where live racing hasn’t been held since 2004, is still as asset to the community.
“The main thing is we don’t have to pull all the way to Oklahoma City or Claremore to train,” Blankenship said.
Perhaps even more exciting for area players may be that the next time stakes-winner Ginger Added goes to post at Prairie Meadows, they may place a winning bet on her at the Cherokee Nation Off-Track Betting (OTB) facility at the Cherokee Nation’s Sallisaw casino. The OTB simulcasts races from around the country seven days a week.
Live racing may be in the past, for the time being, at Blue Ribbon Downs, but racing enthusiasts may still make a good bet in Sallisaw, on a horse trained in Sallisaw.
In the meantime, a group of area horsemen and Sallisaw community leaders are working with the Cherokee Nation to set up a short fair racing meeting at Blue Ribbon Downs.
