Scott Wells, executive at Remington and Lone Star, to retire

Scott Wells, the Remington Park and Lone Star Park general manager who has held racetrack management positions at a variety of tracks throughout the Southwest and internationally for 31 years, will retire at the close of Remington’s meet this December, the owner of the tracks announced on Thursday.

Wells, a former trainer, has been the general manager at Remington since 2005 and the president and general manager of Lone Star Park since 2013. Both tracks are owned by Global Gaming Solutions, the commercial arm of the Chickasaw Nation.

Wells was first hired by Remington Park in 1990, two years after the Oklahoma City track opened. He had trained Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses for 17 years prior to moving into track management, and he has the distinction of winning the first sanctioned Thoroughbred race in Oklahoma, at Blue Ribbon Downs in 1984.

“I am eternally grateful for the leadership of Global Gaming Solutions and the Chickasaw Nation for entrusting me with the reins of both Remington Park and Lone Star Park,” Wells said, in a release. “For me it has been a constant labor of love and there's no denying I will feel a special pang of remorse when I hand off that final trophy for the Springboard Mile on December 17.”

Wells, who was briefly a columnist for DRF after being hired by Remington in 1990, was also the assistant general manager of Hollywood Park in Southern California and the general manager of Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico in the 1990s. In 1999, he was hired by the owner of Lone Star to re-open tracks in Mexico and Uruguay. He returned to Remington in 2004 after voters approved casino-type gambling at Oklahoma tracks.

“Scott Wells is an icon in the horse racing industry and a mainstay at Remington Park across parts of four decades,” said Skip Seeley, the chief executive of Global Gaming Solutions. “His steady guidance and his deep expertise of track operations have been integral to the success of both Remington Park and Lone Star Park in Texas. He helped create Remington Park as a destination in the racing industry and he leaves a legacy of superlative service both to horsemen and racing fans in Oklahoma, across the country and around the world.”