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Award of Merit for Oaklawn Park and the Cella family
By DRF STAFF
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) today announced that Oaklawn Park and the Cella family--which has owned and operated the Hot Springs, Ark., racetrack since its opening in 1905--have been awarded the Eclipse Award of Merit. The award is given annually in recognition of lifetime achievements in Thoroughbred racing.
Oaklawn Park celebrated its Centennial season in 2004, a year in which the track raised the purse of the Arkansas Derby to $1 million and offered a $5 million Oaklawn Centennial Bonus to any horse that could sweep the Rebel Stakes, the Arkansas Derby and the Kentucky Derby. The Centennial Bonus would be captured by Smarty Jones, representing the single largest payday in Thoroughbred racing history.
The Cellas' involvement in the sport goes back more than a century and also includes ownership of tracks in Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and elsewhere. In 1904, Louis and Charles Cella were part of a group that incorporated the Oaklawn Jockey Club, which oversaw construction of Oaklawn Park--America's first track to have a glass-enclosed grandstand.
When Louis Cella died in 1918, ownership of Oaklawn passed to his brother Charles Cella, who oversaw the running of the first Arkansas Derby in 1936. Following Charles Cella's passing in 1940, ownership shifted to John G. Cella, who ran the track until his death in 1968, when current track President and Chairman of the Board Charles J. Cella succeeded his father.
In 1974, Cella introduced the highly popular Racing Festival of the South, which features at least one stakes race a day for the final seven programs of the meeting--climaxed by the Arkansas Derby. The concept of "Festival Racing" has since been imitated at racetracks around the world. The Racing Festival of the South remains a staple of the track's January-April meeting and continues to draw large crowds to Oaklawn Park on a daily basis.
Under Charles J. Cella's leadership, Oaklawn Park also pioneered interstate simulcast wagering. In 1990, Oaklawn became the first North American racetrack to import full-card races across state lines for simulcasting purposes.
The current Oaklawn President also maintains a racing stable of Thoroughbreds. His Northern Spur won the 1995 Eclipse Award as Champion Male Turf Horse after winning that year's Breeders' Cup Turf at Belmont Park.
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