Nebraska Spelled Backwards is

Ak-Sar-Ben

 

“Midwest Blest” Chris Kotulak of TVG remembers his racing roots

 

By Chris Kotulak

It was late afternoon on Tuesday, April 14, 2010, when I stopped into the TVG studio in Los Angeles to pick up my Daily Racing Form and packet of past performances for my next day shift. As I walked by my desk I noticed a magazine with the catchy name of Midwest Thoroughbred.

Huh? I’d never seen that title before, but having spent the first 34 years of my life in Omaha and much of my life in Midwest horse racing, my interest was whet, so I quickly snatched up that copy.

Shortly after completing my review of the March/ April edition, and with memories thoroughly stirred, I thought about how I not only wanted to, but needed to share how fortunate I am to have been raised around Midwest racing.

After a quick exchange with Midwest Thoroughbred’s Mike Porcaro, I was essentially off to the races. Mike and I agreed that my first contribution not be a specific story, but rather a collection of recollections that would hopefully stir up some meaningful and proud memories.

This is going to be Ak-Sar-Ben centric, but why shouldn’t it be? For years, the span of racing across the Midwest, from Chicago to California, was hyphenated by that gem of a racetrack that even today causes racing lovers to get misty.

I’ve worn a lot of hats during my decades of work on the racetrack starting with a 4:30 a.m. bike ride, a lead shank and some sore feet after walking hots for Glenn and Sharon Hild. During the 80s, at the conclusion of OP, they’d hit the road with their Cisk and Dragset and Bitterrook and Adda Nickle and vanloads of others for a summertime of fun at “Ak.”

Up, down and across the waves of prairie grass, rows of corn and rolling by stands of cottonwoods, we all know the labor of love that keeps us on those roads to our treasured Midwest racetracks. Of course, nowadays, due to simulcasting, horses and horsemen are sharing those roads with far fewer race fans.

I spent 11 years on the trot in Nebraska as a track announcer at Fonner Park, Ak-Sar-Ben, State Fair Park in Lincoln and Columbus. My roads also took me to one of the southern reaches of the central time zone and the Red River. While wearing my track announcer hat at Louisiana Downs for six years, part of the time (and in addition to), I also worked for the Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City as an executive casino host. There, I fortunately carved out a job whereby I would travel to racetracks to solicit the VIP players who also played dice and cards.

The slots department had their own hosts. I was strictly table games, and strictly dedicated to race fans. When folks learned I was from Omaha, I can’t tell you how many times our conversation directly led to Ak-Sar-Ben and countless times the same thing would happen. These people (horseplayers and horsemen) would fall under a spell. Loud-mouths would mellow, tough guys would melt and know-it-alls would stop and listen to the lore. It was amazing!

And my heart would always fill with pride. Yes, Aks did park cars in the infield. They would also routinely land 80 buses (from Kansas City alone) in the east parking lot. Where else you gonna park the cars? That beautifully simple grandstand, the maple tree-shaded backside; that 60-foot giant television monitor in the air-conditioned coliseum; weekday post-time at 4 p.m.; Ross’s Steak House, The Drover and their whiskey steak; The Fan-Tan; Clancy’s. This was all part of the splendor of racing in Omaha.

While the aesthetics were charming, you can’t put on a show without horses and horsemen, and that is where “Ak” was even more endearing. JVB and DVH (that’s Jack Van Berg and Don Von Hemel for the “uninitiated”) were kings in the land of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben. Others shined just as brightly. Lyman Rollins and his Bersid would grace us from Arizona. Hoss Inman and his purple Flying I would dazzle us from Colorado. Lukas and his white bridles arrived one summer.

(Wayne arrived in a limo.)

Illinois’ Nancy and Harvey Vanier sure liked their trips to Omaha, particularly when they brought their homebred mare Bungalow. Bud Delp even had an affinity for the Aks winner’s circle with Timeless Native. I know that Cornhusker Handicap trophy towers over his Omaha Gold Cup trophy, as well as his Equipoise Mile, Phoenix Handicap and Michigan Mile hardware.

Speaking of the Michigan Mile (yes, it was a mile & 1/8); Black Tie Affair swooped into Omaha for the Cornhusker after his Michigan Mile win. And the brilliant filly My Juliet won her share of races at Ak-Sar-Ben along with her Michigan Mile win, but that was before my time there.

Ak-Sar-Ben time? Fellow Omaha native Chuck Turco found plenty of time to work for trainer T.V. Smith after he got kicked off the school bus we once rode together. I never get tired of telling that story. However, the timeless story Chuck prefers is that of his Timeless Design, who won seven stakes races. Chuck also trained the all-time leading Nebraska-bred, Dazzling Falls, who really made just a few starts at Ak-Sar-Ben, but laid waste to his stakes competition throughout the Midwest.

Just for fun, let’s recall some other equine jewels that shined from that racing trove of Central Omaha, and all that Ak-Sar-Ben royal blue paint. Thank you… Roman Zipper, Amadevil, Orphan Kist, Comet Kat, Explosive Girl, that hunk Clever Trevor, Mariah’s Storm (dam of Giant’s Causeway) broke her maiden at Aks; and perhaps my favorite – Lucky Salvation.

Of course I couldn’t speak of Ak-Sar-Ben and not mention… wait for it, wait… wait… yes, Who Doctor Who! How many times did track announcer Terry Wallace (an “Ak-icon” himself) wail that at the top of the stretch and/or at the wire? By my count, 28 times.

The great Nebraska-bred, trained by the Fremont, Neb. farmer Herb Reicken, was also popular beyond Omaha, winning twice at Canterbury and once each at Prairie Meadows, The Woodlands and Oaklawn. As the story goes, on the afternoon he won an allowance race at Oaklawn in 1:08.4, under Pat Day, the obviously impressed rider was heard to have said “if this would have been my mount yesterday in the Count Fleet I would have easily won that race with this guy.”

It is horse racing, and the horse finishes in front of the jockey, but Ak-Sar-Ben had their share of memorable riders too. They had some veterans in the room like Garth Patterson and Dean Hall, and plenty young talent. Garrett Gomez put on a show at Fonner Park the spring he arrived with his bug. But he didn’t last the summer at Ak. The stewards moved the apprentice along to greener pastures, like Arlington, Oaklawn, and a few Eclipse Awards.

For me, my favorite Ak-Sar-Ben jockey was John Lively. A 10-time leading rider in a 20-year span, he was the consummate journeyman and he glowed with class. What a treat it was for me to sit on that bench outside the jocks room and visit with John Lively before he marched off to his mount. Or cut through the racing office and hear the cackle of that never-ending card game of Don Ladd and Jimmy Hughes et al. You can’t tell me that pair didn’t look forward to Aks – and the tricks they had up their sleeves.

My years in the press box were sacred with old school Omaha World Herald sports writer Don Lee and handicapper Con Furay. The Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben may have once ruled the mythical Court of Quivira (a sort of city country club). But the real royalty were the horsemen and fans that reveled each summer in that magical racing joy.

Now that I’m out of the gate with my writing, I foresee a specific Midwest Thoroughbred story on John Lively, and on the three generations of Anderson jockeys (Irv, Wayne, Chad and Mark), or on all the Von Hemel men – or on the loving and enduring wives of these men. Not all of these people are from Neb-ras-ka, but so many of them are from the Midwest; and so many of them have that priceless Midwest value of honesty, modesty and friendliness. They’ve all touched racing in the Midwest, just as racing in the Midwest has all touched them — and us.

We are all blessed. Midwest Blest indeed.   

Contact me by email:  ckotulak@tvg.com

  

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