“I think I have enough horses where I could contend again,” said Eash. “I might have a few more horses each night than the last couple of years. I expect to have about six to eight every night. I have mostly older horses. The new ones aren’t anything to get excited about yet.”

Eash’s 294 wins rank third on the all-time Hoosier Park win list, just one behind Dan Perdue and just 25 behind Ernie Gaskin, who tops that list.

“We’ve had good response in requests for stalls,” said Kevin Mack, the standardbred racing secretary. “We had 950 applications for stalls. We have 185 horses in for opening night. We have seven new stables here, either horsemen who are here for the first time or for the first time after being gone for a while.”

“For us to have 14 races full for opening night is great news,” said Moore. “I saw that Vernon Downs (Vernon, N.Y.) had to cancel opening night because they didn’t have enough horses for a full card.”

The cold weather is certainly a change from the week before, but one that hopefully won’t prevent fans from welcoming the new season.

“We’re very excited to get started,” said Moore. “The winter weather is back, but we’ve got some great things planned for the weekend.”

Saturday will be like a second opening night at the track, as that night is themed “A Premiere to Remember.”

The first 1,500 patrons 18 and older will receive a coupon for a free T-shirt to be given away after the third race. There will be free popcorn until 8 p.m. The Late Show band will provide live music and will be stationed inside the grandstand area.

There will be barn tours (5:45 p.m. until 7:15 p.m.), an Easter egg hunt, clowns, $1 hot dogs and a movie-themed entrance that will include an outdoor searchlight from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

The gates open at 5:30 p.m., and first post will be at 6:45 p.m.