Beulah Park: Region's changing race dates may lead to large fields at 20-day meet

GROVE CITY, Ohio – Beulah Park will begin the second-to-last meet of its 90-year existence Saturday. It is expected that Beulah will hold this 20-day meet and then a January-to-May winter/spring session. Penn Gaming, the owners of Beulah Park, has received permission to move its racing license to the Mahoning Valley, where a new racino is being built and expected to open by October 2014.

Beulah will run three days a week, through Dec. 17. Racing will be held on Saturdays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, with the exception of Nov. 5. Quarter Horse races will be part of two cards, this Saturday and on Nov. 16.

Racing secretary Ed Vomacka was extremely happy with number of entries for opening day and expects the trend of big fields to continue.

“We have 126 horses on the overnight for our 10-race card on Saturday and it would be great if we can keep that up,” Vomacka said with a chuckle.

A number of factors may lead to bigger-than-usual fields. Hoosier Park will not conduct Thoroughbred racing in the fall as it has in the past. Thistledown has changed its schedule and its meet will end on Nov. 17. Mountaineer Park formally ran year-round but has scaled back its days. Turfway Park will run only three days a week beginning in January. Beulah has scaled back to three days instead of trying to fill five days.

“We always have bigger fields in the fall, but with all of the factors this year, I think we will do even better field-size wise,” Vomacka said.

Beulah has approximately 960 stalls and Vomacka had applications for nearly 1,100 horses.

“The barn area is filling up quickly,” he said. “We have had a lot of interest from Illinois horsemen this year. Ralph Martinez has 30 stalls and turned in 36 sets of papers.”

Other than Martinez, the trainers’ race should match the same horsemen as the spring meet. Leading trainer Charlie Lawson will return, along with Eric Reed, Joey Poole, Ivan Vazquez, Mike Rone, and Doug Cowans.

The jockey colony will mirror the spring, with leading jockey Edgar Paucar returning along with top jockeys Perry Ouzts, Rodrigo Vergara, Megan Fadlovich, Sergio Figueroa, and Gabriel Lagunes.

Beulah will have four stakes this fall, all for accredited Ohio-bred horses and all with purses of $50,000.

The meet kicks off with Saturday’s $50,000 Glacial Princess for 2-year-old fillies. Long Blonde Angel, trained by Tony Lowry, won her maiden on Sept. 16 at the River Downs-at-Beulah meet. She won by 6 3/4 lengths and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 45, at least 13 points higher than her nearest competitor in the six-furlong race.

Somethin Somethin is one of three first-time starters in the field. Trained by Tim Hamm, she is a full sister to Starting Somethin, a multiple Ohio champion.