On March 14, 1981, U.S. Reed hit a beyond half-court desperation shot as the Arkansas Razorbacks upset Louisville 74-73 in Austin, Texas, at the Frank Irwin Center, commonly known as the Drum.
In 1990, Lee Mayberry hit a 28-foot three-pointer to tie Texas in the Drum and Hogs won in overtime.
Lot of memories and great games in the Drum, which has been replaced with Moody Center.
Arkansas and Texas have a long history of being rivals in almost every sport and the men’s basketball teams meet Tuesday night at 8 p.m., and both teams need a Quad 1 win.
You might recognize Reed from his Saracen Casino ads.
. . .
While thinking back about some of those great games in Austin, Fayetteville and Dallas, an email was received by an old friend, Greg Fisher, about the state of thoroughbred racing.
It was a well-written article by John Cherwa in the Los Angeles Times.
It details issues Santa Anita in California and Gulfstream in Florida are facing.
In the last 20-25 years, Santa Anita has become the benchmark for thoroughbred racing.
At one time New York had a stranglehold on the racing industry with Churchill Downs a close second.
Then along came super trainers like D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, and the warm temperatures of the West Coast started attracting better horses.
Now the Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita and Gulfstream, have hired someone to “kick the tires” for a possible sale.
No one is admitting it, but times are changing and not for the better for those tracks.
In the article, Belinda Stronach said Gulfstream is in a densely urban area and that is not good for horses.
The author quickly points out all three tracks in the Triple Crown are in densely urban areas.
Cherwa interviewed numerous individuals for the story, including Marshall Graham, a professor of economic at Rhodes College in Memphis. Graham is handicapper and owns race horses.
“Kentucky and Arkansas look pretty safe, and we have this new commitment to Maryland and New York, so I think that there’s probably more optimism now about what the future could bring overall in the landscape than what it was a couple of years ago,” Graham said.
The article also mentions other sources of revenue for purses such as Instant Racing, known as Historical Horse Racing, which California tracks are trying to get legalized.
Some tracks do have slot machines but now there is a move to make that a separate company from racing.
Louis Cella has said on more than one occasion that will not happen at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort.
That brought out the need to research. Last Saturday, Santa Anita had a nine-card day and the largest field was 11. Total purses for the day was $344,400 with the largest single purse being $61,900.
On the same day Oaklawn had 10 races, five of which had at least 10 entries (the eighth race had 13), and with four races topping the $130,00 mark the total purses was $793,000.
As more tracks close, so do breeding farms. In 1990, 44,143 thoroughbreds were foaled. That number by 2023 was 18,500.
When Golden Gate racetrack closed in Northern California in 2023, most of the breeding farms did too, and it is really expensive to fly horses to Southern California.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Oaklawn — along with every track in America — was hit by the economy and was in need of something.
Eric Jackson’s idea was Instant Racing, which is still alive around the country at tracks that can’t get casinos licensed.
If racing is going to survive in California, all the thinking needs to be out of the box.
