Tag: Arkansas Horse Racing

C Z Rocket's last victory was this score in the Count Fleet. The multiple graded-stakes winner returns to Oaklawn Park for a Saturday allowance. (Image: Coady Photography)

Standout Sprinter C Z Rocket Returns with New Trainer, Lasix

- 3 min read

Between May 25, 2020, and May 31, 2021 — a nine-race stretch — C Z Rocket finished no worse than second. That included seven victories in those nine races. It also incuded two victories at Oaklawn Park, where the 7-year-old, multiple Grade 2 winner wraps up his 2021 campaign on […]

Super Stock won the Zia Park Derby Thanksgiving week. He wheels back as the favorite in the inaugural Poinsettia Stakes at Oaklawn Park. (Image: Coady Photography)

Super Stock Throws His Millionaire Weight Around in Inaugural Poinsettia

- 3 min read

Not three weeks after he parachuted in and came out with a resounding victory in the Zia Park Derby in New Mexico, Arkansas Derby champion Super Stock returns for Saturday’s inaugural Poinsettia Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The inaugural 1 1/16-mile Poinsettia, which gives 3-year-olds their last jaunt as sophomores, is […]

Nashville reeled off a record time winning the Perryville Stakes last November. He returns for the first time in nearly a year in a Friday Oaklawn Park allowance race. (Image: Keeneland/Coady Photography)

After a Year Away, Nashville Returns to Play an Oaklawn Park Allowance

- 3 min read

It’s only an allowance sprint, not Nashville’s usual company. But the standout sprinter returns for the first time in nearly a year Friday afternoon, taking on six rivals in an Oaklawn Park 5 1/2-furlong dash. You’ll find Nashville on the rail in Oaklawn’s eighth race. As of now, he’s the […]

Oaklawn Park's 2021-22 stakes schedule consists of a record 36 stakes. Included is a revamping of its Kentucky Derby trail stops. (Image: Coady Photography)

Oaklawn Park Boosts Arkansas Derby Purse, Remakes Derby Prep Trail

- 3 min read

Oaklawn Park just shifted the landscape for the 2022 Kentucky Derby trail, boosting the purse for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby to $1.25 million and moving the race up a week, to April 2, 2022. That moves the Arkansas Derby from its traditional spot as the last major Derby prep […]

You'll see December post parades at Oaklawn Park this winter if the Arkansas Racing Commission approves the track's proposed meet extension. That would push Oaklawn's opening date from late January to early December. (Image: Coady Photography)

Oaklawn Park Proposes Meet Extension Into December

- 2 min read

Oaklawn Park announced a proposal for a historic extension of its racing season Monday, adding December race dates to its calendar to create a 66-day season at the Arkansas track. Under the proposal, Oaklawn would open its meet Friday, Dec. 3, 2021 and run through Sunday, May 8, 2022. By […]

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert won his appeal of a 15-day suspension for two of his mainstay trainees testing positive for lidocaine in 2020. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Arkansas Race Officials Rescind Charlatan’s, Gamine’s Drug DQs

- 3 min read

In horse racing’s version of splitting the foal in half, the Arkansas Racing Commission upheld three stewards’ rulings from the 2020 Arkansas Derby card, but rescinded drug-related disqualifications for two Bob Baffert horses — Charlatan and Gamine — running on that card. The six-vote, unanimous decision reinstates Charlatan’s first division […]

Concert Tour and sizzling rider Joel Rosario come into the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby unbeaten in three races, including this 4 3/4-length victory in last month's Rebel Stakes. (Image: Coady Photography)

Get Your Concert Tour Tickets for This Arkansas Derby

- 4 min read

For reasons ranging from handicapping to running style to history, the Arkansas Derby is the perfect last stop on the Kentucky Derby Trail. You could dial up a better finishing prep race. But you’d second-guess yourself mid-thought and wind up back at Oaklawn Park. Yes, Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby […]

For the second consecutive weekend, Oaklawn Park canceled its weekend racing card due to inclement weather forecasts. (Image: Richard Rasmussen/The Sentinel-Record

Citing More Storms, Oaklawn Park Postpones Weekend Card Again

- 2 min read

Oaklawn Park announced late Monday evening that it canceled this weekend’s Thursday through Sunday racing card, citing stormy forecasts for the Hot Springs, AR, region. This once again pushes back three Grade 3 races, including a key Kentucky Derby prep involving Champion 2-Year-Old Essential Quality. That race, the Southwest Stakes, […]

Despite a bout with COVID, the death of his last major owner/client and a declining stable, D. Wayne Lukas remains a presence wherever he goes. He returns to Oaklawn Park for its Winter/Spring Meet, which starts Friday. (Image: Bob Bradley)

Iconic Trainer Lukas Back in the Oaklawn Park Saddle

- 4 min read

He remains the Lion in Winter, albeit a lion overseeing a smaller pride these days. But D. Wayne Lukas is back at Oaklawn Park. He’s back to the winter jungle he ruled for most of the 1990s, and back without many of the high-profile clients who helped put him in […]

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