Baffert to set up barn at Oaklawn in 2026

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Southern California-based trainer Bob Baffert said he plans to have a division of horses at Oaklawn Park next season. The meet traditionally runs from December to the first weekend in May.

“We’re going to be there,” Baffert said Wednesday.

Baffert said his base will continue to be Southern California, but he is moving a division to Churchill Downs. With an operation already in the middle of the country, he will set up a stable at Oaklawn.

“Churchill Downs and Oaklawn, that’s the play,” he said. “The plan’s going to be Churchill to Oaklawn all year long. We’re going to have a barn there now.”

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Baffert said branching out will offer additional racing opportunities for the stable’s horses.

Over the past decade, some other stables based in Southern California have been sending divisions to Oaklawn and also setting up strings n Kentucky. Others have gone to the East Coast.

Baffert has shipped horses into Oaklawn for stakes races through the years. On Thursday, he won the Hot Springs with Desert Gate. The race was the first stakes in this year’s Racing Festival of the South.

Baffert has Litmus Test in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday. Baffert is a five-time winner of that race and an eight-time winner of the Rebel. American Pharoah won both the Rebel and Arkansas Derby before sweeping the Triple Crown in 2015.

Overall, Baffert has compiled a record of 43 wins from 104 career starts at Oaklawn, for purse earnings of $13.4 million. In graded stakes at the Arkansas track, he is 27 for 64, according to statistics from Daily Racing Form.

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