Hill clicking with quality mounts

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Channing Hill leads all riders in stakes wins at this Oaklawn Park meet, and his main mounts are cycling back into major races here over the next two weeks. Marquee Miss is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee next Saturday, and La Macchina is on deck for the Grade 3, $350,000 Razorback Handicap on March 19.

Hill, 28, is in the midst of a strong meet at his winter base of Oaklawn. He has won 15 races from 82 mounts to rank sixth in the standings through Thursday, with his starters earning $734,274. He had three stakes wins through Thursday.

“I’m not riding a lot of volume, but I’m riding a lot of stock,” Hill said, referring to the high quality of his mounts. “I’ve been very fortunate the horses are running good.”

Hill noted that four of his regular mounts have won two races each at the meet. The group includes Marquee Miss and La Macchina.

Marquee Miss has won back-to-back stakes, taking the $100,000 Dixie Belle for 3-year-old fillies over six furlongs Jan. 15 and the $100,000 Martha Washington at a mile in her most recent out Feb. 6.

“The thing I really like about her is she’s very push-button, very manageable within the race,” Hill said. “She’s a big, strong filly who does everything right. Every attribute you want in a good horse, she has.”

La Macchina’s two wins at the meet have come in an optional $20,000 claiming race Jan. 23 and the $100,000 Essex Handicap in his most recent out Feb. 13. Trainer Otabek Umarov said Hill is the right fit for the late-running La Macchina.

“They get along good,” Umarov said. “They won two races already. It looks like La Macchina loves this rider.”

The feeling is mutual.

“I’ve just fallen in love with that horse,” said Hill, who was aboard for La Macchina’s half-mile breeze Friday at Oaklawn. “He’s so classy and does everything you ask him to. He gives everything you ask for from the eighth pole home.”

Hill is a native of Nebraska who won the first race of his career June 4, 2004, at Prairie Meadows. Highlights of his career include capturing the 2008 Forego at Saratoga with First Defence and the 2008 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico with Sweet Vendetta.

Purse hike at Oaklawn

Oaklawn will raise purses for the second time at this meet beginning Thursday. The move will put maiden special weight purses at $75,000, the highest in the country at this time, according to a release from the track. The new increase also puts some allowances at $80,000 and the minimum purse at $22,500, according to a release from Oaklawn.

The first purse increase at the track went into effect Feb. 20. Oaklawn started its meet with maiden special weights at $68,000.

New position for Wayne Smith

Wayne Smith has been named assistant general manager of Oaklawn by track president Charles Cella. The position is a new one, and a nationwide search had been conducted for about a year. Smith has worked for such organizations as Empire City Racing and Gaming in New York and Penn National Gaming in Illinois. He will join Oaklawn before the end of the meet April 16.