Oaklawn Park

Trainers who compete at the 2022-2023 meeting at Oaklawn Park will be eligible for thousands of dollars in incentives owing to a new program sponsored by Oaklawn and the Arkansas HBPA. The 'Stay Until May' bonus will reward traines with $200-$250 for every non-stakes runner that fails to hit the board. Trainers are required to run at least two horses during the final 14 days of the racing season and one over the course of the last nine programs. According to a release, the total bonus payout could reach as...

Lindsay Schultz checked a lot of boxes. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville's Equine Industry Program, moved on to the prestigious Godolphin Flying Start program, managed Glen Hill Farm in Florida and worked as an assistant to Tom Proctor and Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. Yet, she admits to being nervous and not knowing what to expect when she decided last fall to go out on her own as a trainer. Maybe she shouldn't have been. Less than a year after opening her stable, Schultz, 34,...

Oaklawn Park has added nine stakes races to its 2022-23 season, bringing the total number of black-type events offered at the Hot Springs track to 45. In addition, purses to the stakes program have been bumped by $1.45 million for total stakes purses of $13.75 million, the highest in Oaklawn's history. The overall purse distribution for the season is projected to exceed $50 million. This will be the second consecutive year the Oaklawn racing season will begin in December. The new Oaklawn stakes include: Dec. 10 Ring the Bell S....

Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino will induct two horsemen into its Racing Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 9 including Quarter Horse jockey Stormy Smith and prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder, H. Allen Poindexter. His maroon and grey silks have been carried by multiple stakes-winning horses at Prairie Meadows and other tracks across America, such as GIII Fantasy S. runner-up Chanel's Legacy (Dominus) and GIII Iowa Oaks victress Flat Out Speed (Flat Out). Both will be inducted in a ceremony on the second day of the 2022 Iowa Festival of...

One year removed from winning this race with his GISW Mandaloun (Into Mischief) before taking the GI TVG.com Haskell S., Brad Cox returned to the Jersey Shore with Home Brew. Minus one bad run when he caught a sloppy track for Oaklawn's Smarty Jones S. Jan. 1, the son of Street Sense boasted a nearly unblemished record, with his only other loss a second Nov. 14 in his first start for Cox at Churchill Downs. After a three-month absence following the Smarty Jones, Home Brew returned to take the Apr....

Despite missing the final 13 racing days due to injury, David Cabrera earned his first Oaklawn Park riding title with 62 victories when the Arkansas track concluded its racing season Sunday. Cabrera was one win ahead of Francisco Arrieta and eight-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana was third with 47 victories. "This is a dream," Cabrera said. "This is a dream and I really thank my agent. He's a very, very good agent. To me, having him is something very good. He's my secret weapon." Cabrera, who has spent the...

It's long been an appealing part of American lore how the GI Kentucky Derby is unique compared to every other race run during the year. The emphasis has traditionally been on young horses getting exactly one chance to run a distance they've never before attempted, against the largest field they'll likely ever encounter; in front of the biggest on-track crowd they'll ever experience. But the 21st Century has gradually added dynamics to the Derby's legacy that have shaped the race in ways that could not have been fathomed even one...

Arkansas' own Willis Horton celebrated yet another big-race success right in his backyard, as Last Samurai (Malibu Moon) re-rallied at the fence beneath veteran reinsman Jon Court and ran away late to cause a 12-1 upset in Saturday's $1-million GII Oaklawn H. Drawn two in a field reduced to seven by the early scratching of Thomas Shelby (Curlin), Last Samurai had good speed from the inside and shared the lead with second choice Plainsman (Flatter) under the wire for the first time, as favored Fearless (Ghostzapper)--runner-up to the Horton part-owned...

St George Stable's Letruska (Super Saver) added her name to a select group in defense of her title in Saturday's GI Apple Blossom H. at Oaklawn Park, joining the legendary Paseana (Arg), Azeri and Zenyatta as multiple winners of the track's signature event for the dirt distaff set. In winning for a remarkable 19th time in her 25-race career, the 6-year-old reigning Eclipse Award winner held off a late bid from Clairiere (Curlin) and fellow champion Ce Ce (Elusive Quality), herself an ultra-game winner of this race in the early...

The riders of both the winner and the fourth-place horse in a $108,0000 allowance race on last Saturday's GI Arkansas Derby undercard both were fined for apparently forgetting that mile races at Oaklawn Park end at the sixteenth pole and not the traditional finish wire. Geovanni Franco and John Velazquez each were assessed $200 fines from the Oaklawn stewards on Thursday for "misjudging the wire and striking his horse after the finish of the fourth race at Oaklawn Park on April 2, 2022." Franco was on the lead for most...

Gold Square LLC's Cyberknife (Gun Runner) exited his win in Saturday's GI Arkansas Derby in fine shape and is expected to ship to Louisville Tuesday to continue preparations for the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby. The colt, who was making his second stakes appearance after a sixth-place effort in the Jan. 22 GIII Lecomte S., continued a trend of frisky behavior Saturday at Oaklawn when dumping jockey Florent Geroux in the post parade. "I was too far away to do anything about it, but Florent was able to jump up...

Saturday's $1.25-million GI Arkansas Derby was supposed to be all about Secret Oath (Arrogate), who had so dominated her peers that trainer D. Wayne Lukas and owner/breeder Briland Farm decided to roll the dice and bypass what would have been a far easier task in the GIII Fantasy S. The betting public largely endorsed the idea, sending the chestnut off as the 7-5 favorite, but in the end, it was not meant to be, as Gold Square LLC's Cyberknife (Gun Runner) was the recipient of a cerebral ride from Florent...