Four-race card kicks off weekend of racing, entertainment

OMAHA, Neb. – It’s festival time in Omaha, as live racing returns to Horsemen’s Park for a three-day meet that starts Friday at 6 p.m. Central.

Friday’s four-race card kicks off a weekend of trip giveaways, T-shirt tosses, and live music in a true festival environment that always draws large crowds. Omaha has never forgotten its links to racing’s heyday, when Ak-Sar-Ben ranked as one of the Midwest's top tracks, and the weekend of racing over this strip is a strong reminder of those days.

South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas will give away two trips each Friday and Saturday, including airfare, a two-night stay, and $500 cash. Live bands will be playing under the tent behind the grandstand all three days, and food and beverage tents are plentiful. On Saturday, there will be a camel race and an ostrich race between the live races, and Sunday will feature five $500 Mother’s Day prize-package drawings.

Each day features Nebraska-bred stakes races, starting Friday with the $30,000 Falls Amiss Handicap for fillies and mares. Shady Bend Thoroughbreds’s Spice Swirl is assigned the top weight of 123 pounds in the field of six as she defends her title in the one-mile race.

Trained by Brian Roberts, Spice Swirl opened her 2014 campaign with an off-the-pace win March 19 in the Orphan Kist Stakes at Fonner Park. She returned against open company April 19 in the Runza Stakes but was unable to overcome a rough start and finished fourth in the six-furlong dash.

On Friday, she again faces T Jays Affair, the 2012 Falls Amiss winner. T Jays Affair campaigned at Oaklawn Park this spring, mostly running against $7,500 starter company while picking up a win and a second in four starts. Trainer Doug Anderson brings T Jays Affair in from his Prairie Meadows base. She finished third in last year’s Falls Amiss.

The Mike Sorensen stable has an upset threat in the form of Artificial Diamond. The 5-year-old mare won her maiden at Fonner by 11 lengths April 18, then returned April 27 to crush entry-level allowance foes by nearly six lengths under a hand ride. This will be her first start beyond six furlongs, but she has impressed this year and bears watching.