Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla., opens Monday with tweaks to its racing and stakes schedule, a reduced minimum for pick fours, and a barn area overflowing with horses. The 30-date meet continues through May 17. Will Rogers is racing every Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday compared to a Monday through Wednesday schedule last year that did not pick up Saturdays until May. The track also has moved six of its eight stakes to Mondays and Tuesdays, said Jesse Ullery, racing secretary at Will Rogers.“We’re really excited about this year,” he said. “The last three years we’ve experienced pretty serious gains in” handle. Betting on Will Rogers’s races from all sources last year was $23.3 million, up $1.75 million over the corresponding meet in 2012, according to figures from the track. There were six programs on which Will Rogers handled $1 million or more. The track, a Cherokee Nation facility that operates a casino with 250 slot machines, starts its eighth year of operation Monday. The 600-stall stable area is at capacity, with the barn area housing horses for such trainers as Roger Engel, who has won the last three training titles at Will Rogers; Joe Offolter, who invades from Sam Houston; Kari Craddock, a mainstay in Oklahoma; and Scott Young, a retried jockey coming off a high-percentage season at Remington Park. The riding colony is led by Curtis Kimes, who has won the local title the last four years. “He’s the guy to beat year-in and year-out here,” Ullery said. “We have a lot of veteran riders this meet, and obviously, that’s what horsemen like to see.” Jockeys Martin Escobar, Benny Landeros, Belen Quinonez, and Justin Shepherd also are signed on for the new meet. Ullery, 25, is in his second year as racing secretary at Will Rogers. He previously served as the track’s announcer, and upon leaving the booth John Lies, who also is the voice of Lone Star Park, began calling races at Will Rogers. Ullery said overnight purses are projected to average $135,000 a program. The track’s stakes schedule is worth an estimated $200,000. Ullery moved a pair of open-company sprints, the $50,000 Wilma Mankiller Memorial for fillies and mares March 24 and the $50,000 Clem McSpadden Memorial Route 66 on March 25, up from mid-April with the hopes of catching horses in between meets at Sam Houston and Lone Star, as well as drawing runners from Oaklawn. Other highlights of the stakes schedule include a pair of $50,000 divisions of the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds, both on May 3. Ullery said beginning March 15, there will be two 50-cent minimum pick fours daily. The bet’s previous minimum had been $2. First post each afternoon will be 12:30 p.m. Central.