HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Jinks Fires will be making a notable circuit change after the Oaklawn Park meet ends in May. Fires said Thursday that he plans to remain in Arkansas and will base at a Hot Springs training center rather than set up his usual division at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. He’s been a Churchill regular every year since 1961. “I’m going to stay home and ship and run different places, like Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and occasionally go back to Kentucky,” said Fires, 80. “I’ve been running up and down the road for 60 years. It will be a different deal. We’ll do it this year and see how it works out.” Fires and his wife, Penny, have maintained a home in Hot Springs for more than 40 years. He said Penny recently told him she is not as comfortable driving by herself as she had been in years past. :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. “I told her I would stay home,” Fires said. “Hot Springs is our home.” Fires said that outside of this region and Kentucky, he also could ship horses for races in Illinois and Indiana. And, by basing year-round in the South, it might even afford Fires and Penny the opportunity to jet over to Florida. “We’ve got a home in the Keys that we’ve seen four times in 12 years,” Fires said. “Hopefully this year we’ll get a chance to run down there a couple of times.” Fires has had a number of notable stakes winners, including Archarcharch, who won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby in 2011. Fires in 2017 saddled Colonelsdarktemper to victory in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby. He’s also won two recent runnings of the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn, in 2019 with Gray Attempt and 2016 with Discreetness. Fires also trained multiple Grade 3 winner Spotsgone, and has one of the horse’s daughters, Very Spicy, entered in the 10th race Sunday at Oaklawn.