Oaklawn sets schedule for 2007

Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., will race 56 dates in 2007, from Jan. 19 through April 14. The calendar was approved

during an Arkansas Racing Commission meeting at the track on Saturday.

Oaklawn will mostly race four days a week in January and February, and will move to a five-day-a-week schedule in March and April. The exceptions are a three-day race week Jan. 19-21, and a special Monday card on Presidents Day, Feb. 19. There is no racing on Easter Sunday, April 8.

The calendar is similar to the 56-date meet Oaklawn is racing this year, except that the track raced three days a week for the first three weeks of this meet.

- Also on Saturday, Oaklawn announced that overnight purses will be increased $2,000 a race, or $20,000 a day, beginning with the April 7 program. It is the third increase at the meet, behind a $700-a-race increase and a $1,000-a-race increase in successive weeks in early March.

The increase is due in part to revenue from Instant Racing, a parimutuel game that plays like a slot machine. The machines are located on the first floor of the grandstand.