Remington Park track report

Add the hot barn of Kelly Von Hemel to the list of trainers coming back to a rejuvenated Remington Park. He was the second-leading trainer at the recent Thoroughbred meet at Prairie Meadows and is bringing a 20-horse stable to Oklahoma City for the meet, which opens Aug. 4.

"We're looking forward to coming down there," he said. "It's been at least seven, eight years."

Von Hemel's stable includes such quality 3-year-olds as Jazzy Okie, a multiple stakes winner; Okie Time, a half-brother to stakes winner That Tat; and Miss Macy Sue, who was second last out in the $100,000 Saylorville at Prairie Meadows.

Remington opened a casino last fall, and it has helped push purses from $100,000 a day to $185,000 a day. Von Hemel said the increase is one reason he is coming back to Remington.

"First of all," he said, "I really liked it down there. I liked the city. I liked the racing surface. I liked the backstretch. I liked Remington Park."

* A new Oklahoma Stallion Stakes program is being launched, with races in the series to be run at Remington in the fall of 2009. At that time, a pair of stakes for 2-year-olds will be contested and each will have an estimated purse of $55,000. There are also races set up for Will Rogers Downs in 2010.