By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
As Remington Park celebrates their 35th anniversary, Piedmont’s own Donnie Von Hemel has been there to see it all.
Von Hemel is a horse trainer who was there when the racetrack opened in 1988.
He’s seen the beginning and is keeping it strong today as Remington Park Racing Casino.
Shopping mall developer Edward DeBartolo Sr., who owned Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, Louisiana, and Thistledown racetrack in Cleveland, Ohio, initiated construction on Remington Park in 1986. Completed at a reported cost of more than $90 million, it opened for its first races on Sept. 1, 1988.
Von Hemel has had horses entered in major national races including The Kentucky Derby.
In 2016, Von Hemel had a fifth-place finisher in the Derby with Suddenbreakingnews.
The Remington Park 35th anniversary celebration will be Friday, Sept. 1 at the racetrack near Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and NE 50 at One Remington Way in northeast Oklahoma City.
The thoroughbred racing season opened Aug. 18 and continues until Dec. 15.
Von Hemel was in Louisville, Kentucky where he was working Wednesday and spoke to The Piedmont-Surrey Gazette by telephone. He said the 35th anniversary is an important milestone to horse racing in Oklahoma and the industry it has become since opening day in 1988.
“It is the signature racetrack in Oklahoma. They run the most days whether it’s quarter horses or thoroughbreds. They give away the most money for both breeds also. For anyone who runs in Oklahoma it’s the premiere meet in Oklahoma,” Von Hemel said.
In 1988, Von Hemel, who closed on a house in Piedmont where he has lived since, was a young trainer. The TV networks set up crews in the infield for opening day Sept. 1, 1988.
“It was a pretty exciting time being a young trainer and hoping it would become part of the circuit we would race on,” Von Hemel said.
He had worked with the DeBartolo family before Remington Park, he said.
“I had familiarity with the management team there and I thought they had a real good chance of being successful,” Von Hemel said.
The meets were in the fall for thoroughbreds and the spring for quarter horses.
He recalls the TV coverage on opening day last all day. These days he races horses at Remington as well as other tracks.
He has lived in Piedmont 35 years.
Von Hemel, 61, said he had 10 horses racing in Kentucky and about 20 horses at Remington this fall.
