Frigid temperatures as Oaklawn Park prepares to open meet

It’s beginning to look a lot like Oaklawn.

Oaklawn Park, the Hot Springs, Ark., track that has turned out a number of top-class 3-year-olds over the last decade, took entries for its Friday opener Tuesday. It was a frigid morning, with training delayed about 2 1/2 hours until 9:30. However, the forecast that seemed threatening earlier this week has improved, and Oaklawn officials are looking forward to the nine-race card, led by the $100,000 Dixie Belle.

“It looks like the forecasts, they all seem to be getting a little better today than they were yesterday,” David Longinotti, director of racing for Oaklawn, said Tuesday. “To be honest, training Thursday and Friday morning is questionable, but I don’t see any problem with us being able to race on Friday and Saturday.”

Temperatures were forecast to be as low as 12 degrees Wednesday night and 23 degrees Thursday night but improve to 35 for Friday. The Weather Channel is calling for sunny skies for Friday’s opener, with a similar forecast for Saturday. Oaklawn also will race Sunday.

There were 92 horses entered for Friday’s card, which will start a tad earlier than usual at 12:35 p.m. Central. The highlight of the program is the Dixie Belle, a six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies that drew a competitive field of 11. Promise Me Silver will put her 4-for-4 record on the line against fellow stakes winners Joy of the Saints, Timeaday, Strawberry Baby, and Lil Super Bear as well as the stakes-placed Sarah Sis. Promise Me Silver most recently won the Letellier Memorial at Fair Grounds.

Oaklawn’s stakes program continues Saturday with the $100,000 Fifth Season, a 1 1/16-mile race for 4-year-olds and up that officials expected to draw Grade 3 winner Carve. The track will move into its 3-year-old series during the second week of the meet, with the $150,000 Smarty Jones at a mile set for the holiday Monday card Jan. 19.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Tuesday morning that Mr. Z is being pointed for the race. The Smarty Jones is the first of four route stakes for the division, culminating with the closing-day Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 11.

Lukas said Mr. Z is a candidate for the series. The horse was third by a head in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in his most recent start Dec. 20.

Shotgun Kowboy, a multiple stakes winner who had been pointing for the Oaklawn series for 3-year-olds, will miss the meet, trainer C.R. Trout said Tuesday. The horse was found to have a hairline fracture in a foreleg following his head loss in the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park on Dec. 14. Trout said Shotgun Kowboy simply needs time to heal.

“He’ll be off for the next 120 days,” said Trout.