Oaklawn Racing & Gaming

Great weather and crowd today! Spent Spring Break in Hot Springs and were so excited to get to see some horse racing.  We went twice.  The first time was on a Monday and it was empty. We got a box right near the windows, next to us was a guy that owned the box and his friend was an owner of a horse that was running.  He was very helpful in teaching me the ropes of horse racing and betting on horses.  Each of us had our own system for picking our horse.  Mom picked based on color, I went by stats, look of the horse, and names.  It was fun, we won but not big.  

The highlight of the trip to Oaklawn was the Ruben Sandwich!!!! OMG.  We all loved it.  Jucey, grilled, lots of thick cut meat, toppings to add.  Came with chips, pickle, and a drink.  

We came back on Saturday for a high stakes race and sat in reserved seating next to some nice local season ticket holders that really knew their horse racing.  They were friendly and gave us a few inside tips.  Dad like going down to the paddock to check out the horses up close before placing his bets.  We again got the RUBEN! This may have been the main reason my mom went twice. I would highly recommend this place to anyone! We visited the casino once but it wasn't anything super special.  Overall this was one of the highlights of our trip to Hot Springs.

Very fun!  So many people and seeing the hats are fun.  The place is huge! Again, everyone is so very nice and friendly.  There are many levels, so if you just want to grab a hot dog, head to the top level where there is never a line. Coady Photography is amazing.  They take the most incredible pictures of the races I have ever seen.  A great place for fun, food and entertainment.

I've been to Oaklawn twice for the Rebel stakes race on St. Patty's weekend and it's been a lot of fun both times. If you don't know anything about horse racing it can be intimidating, but you can ask for betting information at the counter and at least have fun making the basic win/place/show bets. Oaklawn is big and smells like horse poop and fried state fair food. People bring their kids here and smoke all over the place and yell like assholes when their horse wins or loses. It's great.

Although I love the horse track, I have to say that coming from Kansas City I was not that impressed with the casino area. It was small and the games were all the newer video slots with none of the traditional ones. Even though I was playing on a Sunday early afternoon it was packed and people were still being jerks and playing two machines at once. I spent about 30 minutes in the casino and then went back to the horse track for some real gaming fun.