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 […]
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 […]
While you were paying attention to the Kentucky Derby trail, Silver State was winning races. While you were paying attention to the adventures of Charlatan, Maxfield, Knicks Go, Monomoy Girl, and Swiss Skydiver, Silver State was joining them in the millionaire’s club. The 4-year-old punched his membership ticket to that […]
Plans for horse racing’s newest female star – you know her as Letruska – remain fluid entering the week, less than 48 hours after the 5-year-old mare’s stirring Apple Blossom Handicap victory. ‘I think we’re going to take a little bit more time with her,” trainer Fausto Gutierrez told Oaklawn […]
Concert Tour, one of the Kentucky Derby futures darlings throughout the winter and early spring, will bypass the Derby and run in the Preakness Stakes. The news came via a Bob Baffert text to Churchill Downs, which announced the move in a Saturday morning press release. The Hall of Fame […]
You could make a credible case the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park is the clubhouse leader for the best race of 2021. The reason you can make that case leads you to make cases for the two principals in Saturday’s Oaklawn headliner. Even-money favorite Monomoy Girl vs. […]
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 […]
The field for Saturday’s Listed Stakes Oaklawn Mile brings three familiar candidates with eclectic stories of redemption to a race that punches far above its weight class. There’s By My Standards, who makes his 2021 debut as the 5/2 favorite at the site of one of his 2020 victories. Hard […]
You know Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale as the Moby Dick of sports bettors. But horse racing fans better recognize the Houston furniture magnate/betting whale as the owner of Eclipse Award-winning sprinter-turned-stallion Runhappy. And one of Runhappy’s offspring, Joyful Cadence, runs for her sire’s second stakes progeny victory in Saturday’s Black-Type […]
By winning Oaklawn Park’s Temperence Hill Stakes on Saturday, 47/1 longshot Carlos L produced one single winner in Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5. That winning ticket earned its lucky and savvy holder a healthy $108,475 payoff from the regular Saturday multi-track, multi-race wager. Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 incorporated three […]
The Grade 2 Rebel Stakes, which holds court as the lone Kentucky Derby prep of consequence this weekend, has a Grade 1 winner in its field. Bob Baffert doesn’t train 8/1 Get Her Number, the lone Grade 1 winner in Saturday’s Rebel at Oaklawn Park. Nor does Brad Cox. No, […]
If Concert Tour was your garden-variety band embarking on a, well, concert tour, he’d be one of those hot new groups from the underground. A group people have heard of, but don’t really know about. He may not have broken through to the main stage yet, but Concert Tour is […]
Essential Quality and Greatest Honour came out of their weekend Kentucky Derby prep victories none the worse for their victorious efforts. And, their respective trainers have already plotted their next stops on the Derby trail. Essential Quality, who splashed through the Oaklawn Park slop for a 4 ¼-length victory over […]
Again, when you’re handicapping a Monomoy Girl race, like Sunday’s Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park, it’s best to put the pen down. Instead, pick up your attention and simply watch. Betting on Monomoy Girl, especially in a race like this, lacks value. For horse racing fans, however, it […]
From a betting standpoint, Saturday’s Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park lacks value. Do you want 3/2 Essential Quality or 8/5 Jackie’s Warrior? There are five other horses in the field, but this isn’t a rhetorical question. From a watching standpoint, the 1 1/16-mile Southwest lacks nothing. How can […]
This weekend’s stakes card gives us another shot at seeing the 2021 debuts of Essential Quality, Jackie’s Warrior, and Monomoy Girl. After two weather postponements over the past two weekends, Oaklawn Park finally gets a thumbs-up from Mother Nature. That means the Arkansas track finally gets to turn loose its […]
Scrambling to make up eight lost days of racing, Oaklawn Park officials announced a revamped schedule that reschedules its five canceled stakes races, and adds races and purse money to the Arkansas track’s schedule. Oaklawn isn’t the only American racetrack feeling the polar blast buffeting the Central and Eastern US. […]
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert began plotting his next moves for his deep bench of Kentucky Derby prospects, with the first move sending top prospect Life Is Good to the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Baffert’s second move sends Freedom Fighter across the country for […]
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, […]
Looking at this weekend’s notable stakes races takes the eye halfway around the world to the $20 million Saudi Cup. Another look also takes the eye back to three races postponed from last weekend to this weekend – the Southwest Stakes, the Bayakoa Stakes, and the Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn […]
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