Betting on act 12.

BETTING ON ACT 12

It is 8 a.m. at the Pancake Shop on Central Avenue, and the place is hopping.

At a table in the back of one of Hot Springs' most popular breakfast spots, former Mayor Jon L. Starr studies the Arkansas Gasette racing picks and greets those sitting down at surrounding tables.

In Hot Springs, when someone says "Starr," the managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat is not the first person who comes to mind.

In May 1988, Starr, the owner of the only thoroughbred sales company in Arkansas, stirred up a whirlwind of controversy when he wrote Oaklawn Park owner Charles J. Cella and blasted Cella for having reportedly said Arkansas is not a good place to own a track.

Starr said many Hot Springs residents hoped the track's decline would "force Cella off his high horse and have him realize that Oaklawn and Hot Springs must be a partnership, not a lord-and-servant arrangement."

Starr was back in the news this month with letters to newspaper editors and members of the state Racing Commission asking the commissio...

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