Tag: Oaklawn Park

Unbeaten Newgrange looks to build on his Southwest Stakes win as the 9/5 favorite in Saturday's Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. (Image: Coady Photography)

Favorite Newgrange Gives Rebel Stakes an Old-School Baffert Look

- 3 min read

When it comes to the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes, it doesn’t really matter that Bob Baffert is suspended from Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby. All that matters is one question, the answer of which is typically “yes.” Does Baffert have a live candidate in this year’s Rebel? Of course […]

Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Racetrack and the Saudi Cup open this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia/Neville Hopwood)

Saudi Cup Opens This Week’s International Cross Country Pick 5

- 3 min read

The $20 million Saudi Cup, a.k.a. the world’s richest race, opens this week’s opportunity for horseplayers to get rich via the New York Racing Association’s Cross Country Pick 5. This week’s five-race sequence takes on a cross-global flavor. It features races from the home of the Saudi Cup — King Abdulaziz Racetrack […]

Wells Bayou hasn't run an allowance race since this January 2020 victory at Oaklawn Park. He leads a field of familiar names into a Presidents Day allowance at Oaklawn. (Image: Coady Photography)

Look Who’s Back for This Loaded Oaklawn Park Allowance: Wells Bayou

- 3 min read

Oaklawn Park wrote Monday’s featured eighth race as a $101,000 allowance. But judging by the familiar names in the one-mile allowance, this race does a credible impression of a stakes race. There’s Wells Bayou, making his second comeback from physical issues that cost him much of his 3-year-old and 4-year-old […]

Happy Soul made many many folks happy with this 11 1/2-length dissection of the Astoria Stakes last June. The Wesley Ward trainee comes in as the 9/5 favorite for Saturday's Dixie Belle Stakes at Oaklawn Park. (Image; Coglianese Photo/Chelsea Durand)

Ward is Whistling Dixie With Latest Sprint Star Happy Soul

- 3 min read

You don’t usually see Wesley Ward holding court at Oaklawn Park. But the renowned trainer of younger horse carries an open secret that he hopes Happy Soul can broadcast to horseracing fans Saturday in the Listed Dixie Belle Stakes. That secret? Yes, Ward usually holds court at Keeneland or Royal […]

Lone Rock's first Oaklawn Park stakes victory came in this Tinsel Stakes score in December. He is the 3/1 morning-line favorite in Saturday's Grade 3 Razorback Handicap. (Image: Coady Photography)

Lone Rock Becomes a Solid Choice in a Deep Razorback

- 2 min read

This time last year, Lone Rock was preparing for a mid-level allowance race at Oaklawn Park. He was three months away from being claimed for $40,000 after a November race at Churchill Downs. Now, the gelding is two days away from racing for a chunk of a $600,000 purse in […]

Oaklawn Park lost eight days of racing last year due to winter storms. The Arkansas track canceled this weekend's racing card due to Winter Storm Landon. (Image: Coady Photography)

Oaklawn Park Cancels Weekend Races; Fog Wipes Out Aqueduct Finale

- 2 min read

Winter Storm Landon and the freezing temperatures blanketing the central US wiped out racing at three tracks on Thursday, most prominently at Oaklawn Park, which announced it’s canceling racing this weekend. Along with that Arkansas track, Sam Houston Race Park in Texas and Turfway Park in Kentucky both scrubbed their […]

Perhaps Dash Attack needed muck like he conquered in the Smarty Jones last weekend in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes. The previous unbeaten colt finished fifth in the Southwest at Oaklawn Park. (Image: Coady Photography)

McPeek Trying to Figure Out Why Dash Attack Went South in Southwest

- 2 min read

Dash Attack came into last Saturday’s Southwest Stakes as one of the Kentucky Derby prospects to watch. He came in as the unbeaten, 3.40/1 second favorite for the Southwest. He came out of it unscathed physically, according to trainer Kenny McPeek. As for his once-invincible aura? Not so much. Not […]

Newgrange and John Velazquez rallied for a 1 1/2-length victory in Saturday's Grade 3 Southwest Stakes. The Bob Baffert-trained colt was ineligible for Kentucky Derby points due to the trainer's suspension. (Image: Coady Photography)

Southwest Champ Newgrange Remains Unbeaten, Ineligible for Derby

- 3 min read

The fact Bob Baffert’s Newgrange won his second Kentucky Derby prep in as many months was more important to the Hall of Fame trainer than the fact that, right now, Newgrange isn’t eligible to run in the May 7 Derby. “I’m not going to worry about that right now,” Baffert […]

Kenny McPeek's Dash Attack splashed his way to victory New Year's Day in the Smarty Jones. Can he do the same on a dry track as the 7/2 second choice in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park? (Image: Coady Photography)

Yes, Baffert has the Southwest Stakes Favorite, But He’s Got Company

- 4 min read

Today’s $750,000 Grade 3 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park has the usual Bob Baffert flavor: 2/1 morning-line favorite Newgrange, shipping in from California in search of Baffert’s record-tying fifth Southwest title. But there’s a new contender awaiting: Kenny McPeek, who finds himself in the unfamiliar role of trainer of Kentucky […]

Concert Tour seeks a return to the form he showed last spring at Santa Anita Park. He finished last in his first race in eight months. (Image: Zoe Metz)

Cox Frustrated by Concert Tour’s Single Gear

- 2 min read

Brad Cox knows the rules of engagement, which doesn’t make Concert Tour’s last-place finish in last weekend’s Fifth Season Stakes at Oaklawn Park any easier to digest. Losing by 15 lengths as the 3/2 favorite in the nine-horse Fifth Season field does, however, come with reinforced lessons. One of which being, […]

Dash Attack conquered 12 rivals and the Oaklawn Park slop Saturday, winning the Smarty Jones Stakes and giving trainer Kenny McPeek another Kentucky Derby contender. (Image: Coady Photography)

Smarty Jones Winner Dash Attack Gives McPeek a Pleasant Problem

- 3 min read

Kenny McPeek has what you call a Kentucky Derby embarrassment of riches coming courtesy of Dash Attack, who won Saturday’s Listed Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park. And the dynamic trainer is still trying to put the talented pieces together. That’s because, on Saturday, McPeek added another piece to an […]

Home Brew finds himself the favorite in a deep, record-sized Smarty Jones field. The mile-race is Oaklawn Park's first of four Kentucky Derby preps. (Image Coady Photography)

Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones Packs In, Sends Out a Record-Sized Field

- 4 min read

Whichever candidate wins Saturday’s Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park will get themselves a dress rehearsal for the Kentucky Derby and its cavalry-charge-sized field. Because, barring any scratches, the Smarty Jones will send out the largest field in event history with 14 horses. The one-mile Smarty Jones, the first of […]

Manhattan Up, seein here winning the Los Alamitos Special in September, was one of a flurry of early claims at Oaklawn Park. The Arkansas track is on a record claiming pace only nine days into its meet. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Oaklawn Park Claims its Role as a Claim Box Haven for Trainers

- 3 min read

Like he did last spring at Oaklawn Park with C Z Rocket, Tom Kagele is trying to catch claiming lightning in a bottle again. And a sizzling claiming market at Oaklawn this winter is creating the perfect storm for him to do that. This time, it’s double bolts of claiming […]

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 […]

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