Experts in Sports and Gambling
Oaklawn Park stewards suspended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert for 15 days and stripped two of his prize horses of victories for their positive drug tests for excessive amounts of a banned substance. The decisions came down Wednesday, two days after a hearing addressing the excessive amounts of lidocaine […]
Multiple published reports confirmed Tuesday that Bob Baffert’s star 3-year-old Charlatan was one of two horses from the Hall of Fame trainer’s barn testing positive for lidocaine in a post-race sample taken on Arkansas Derby Day May 2. The New York Times reported the second horse was Gamine, a filly […]
The Arkansas Derby is behind us and a work-in-progress Kentucky Derby Trail lies in front of us. With tracks around the country beginning to open again in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and Churchill Downs officials still mapping out prep races, it’s a good time to see where the […]
This is scheduling as brilliant as the race its talent promises. In between the split Arkansas Derby divisions on Oaklawn Park’s dynamic closing day card rests the $600,000 Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap – a race punching far above its Grade 2 status. Put the grade aside. Far aside. This year’s […]
With the Arkansas Derby’s split divisions, here runs the talent. The Arkansas Derby’s second division features your graded-stakes winners, your low-odds Kentucky Derby futures picks and the horses owning Derby prep victories. Here is the Arkansas Derby’s varsity division – the second division. This is where you find your Louisiana […]
If you picture Saturday’s Arkansas Derby’s two divisions as a high school sport, the first division would be the junior varsity. And not just because it goes to post an hour and 44 minutes before the second division. With few exceptions, the first division is the JV. There’s no other […]
In the March 2019 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, Improbable overcame a wide trip, took command at the top of the stretch – then was run down by Long Range Toddy. A month later at the Arkansas Derby, Improbable overcame a wide trip, drew even with Omaha Beach, but couldn’t […]
Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity of being outside his Florida home for the first time. Perhaps it was nerves at realizing he’d reached the big time. Or perhaps this was King Guillermo’s way of announcing his arrival at Oaklawn Park for Saturday’s Arkansas Derby. Whatever the reason, King Guillermo announced […]
Given the intense interest in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby amid the coronavirus pandemic, the move was as expected as it was unprecedented. And Oaklawn Park made it official Sunday, splitting Saturday’s final scheduled Kentucky Derby prep into two divisions. Both 11-horse divisions will race for a $500,000 purse, and […]
Juvenile champion Storm the Court will storm a non-California track for the first time at next week’s $750,000 Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, trainer Peter Eurton announced this week. The 1 1/8-mile race at Oaklawn Park remains the only official Kentucky Derby prep currently on the schedule, which explains its popularity. […]
Welcome news greeted horsemen as they read Friday’s overnight entries list for one of the few North American racetracks still running live racing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Attention horsemen: We are seriously considering extending the meet. We need everyone to adhere to the protocols for COVID-19 that were handed out […]
It’s the only Kentucky Derby prep currently on the calendar, which explains why the Arkansas Derby is popular these days. But 99 nominations popular? To paraphrase Roy Scheider’s character from “Jaws” – “Someone’s gonna need a bigger race.” Oaklawn Park published the Arkansas Derby nominations list over the weekend, a […]
This is the field quality you usually see racing in the Breeders’ Cup in November, not the Apple Blossom Handicap in April. Deep, talented, accomplished, versatile in terms of running styles – it’s all there. And it’s there at Oaklawn Park. The $600,000, Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap is typically […]
She looms over the Apple Blossom Handicap field as a first-among-equals favorite. But royal resume, career victories and pedigree aside, Serengeti Empress wears the uneasy crown of a favorite with more to prove, and a desire to exit the roller coaster marking her career to date. Not that you’d turn […]
Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, the first major North American racing figure to test positive for the coronavirus, is out of quarantine and back in New York. He plans on returning to racing May 1 at Oaklawn Park. After testing positive for the coronavirus on March 24, Castellano spent […]
You can look at the migration of California trainers and jockeys to Arkansas as a necessary move in the COVID-19 era of closed racetracks around the country. How else to keep horses not just training, but running for purses, and owners not running from the sport? Or you could take […]
New jockey restrictions put in place by Oaklawn and Gulfstream Park sent the rider colonies at those two parks – and elsewhere — into a scramble of altered plans, missed racing days, and enforced quarantines. The new regulations, placed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, have jockeys and their agents […]
Oaklawn Park in Arkansas became the latest facility to adjust its calendar in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, moving its flagship race – the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby – from Saturday, April 11 to Saturday, May 2. That is Oaklawn Park’s closing date. It was also the original date for […]
From a betting standpoint, the coronavirus outbreak that has canceled or suspended events across the sporting spectrum means America’s horse racing tracks are some of the few venues with action available to punters. Provided you have a remote betting account or betting app. Due to the threat of coronavirus and […]
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