HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park’s meet will start in late November next season and revert to a Friday-through-Sunday format most weeks if the Arkansas Racing Commission approves plans Oaklawn Park and the Arkansas Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association have agreed to, according to track president Lou Cella. Cella said the track also is having discussions about moving the Arkansas Derby back to three weeks before the Kentucky Derby. It currently is being run five weeks out. Oaklawn would open on Nov. 27, 2026, next season and race 65 dates through Kentucky Derby Day, which will be May 1, 2027. Cella said there will be a one-week break in mid-January, and the season would again be presented as two meets – the first a holiday session up to the break and the second the classic meet through the close of the sesion. The changes are a departure from the current meet, which opened Dec. 12 and raced three  days a week up until early January. A three-week break ensued, and Oaklawn returned for its classic meet and is currently racing Thursdays through Sundays through May 2. :: Live racing action at Oaklawn Park! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “We’re going to go back to our old schedule,” Cella said. “We still have to get approval from the racing commission, but we floated it by the horsemen and they have agreed to it. Basically, we’re starting the end of November, the day after Thanksgiving, and we’re going to go weekends only. “We have learned this year that going back to four days, we don’t have the full fields that Oaklawn expects, so we’re going to go back to three days for the balance of the year. Unfortunately, if Oaklawn can’t pull off four days out of the week with full fields, I don’t think any track can."  Oaklawn long has been known as a field-size leader in North America. “We will have a one-week break in the middle of the January, just to give everything a breather,” said Cella. Cella said once dates are approved, racing secretary Pat Pope will begin working on the stakes schedule. The major point of discussion, Cella said, will be moving the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby and perhaps tweaking the date of the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel to make it stand out as another primary prep for the Kentucky Derby. This year, the Arkansas Derby was run March 28 and the Rebel was held March 1. “We might kind of have the [Arkansas] Derby go back to three weeks instead of five weeks and then really create our Rebel as a derby and our Arkansas Derby as a derby, because you just don’t see horses running in both anymore,” Cella said. “And a lot of horses, [connections] want to run in one or the other, but the date doesn’t work, and so we’re thinking right now – and we’ll know later in the summer – but we really are thinking about having the Rebel maybe a little earlier or at the same time, but having the [Arkansas] Derby now three weeks before, so if one of these horses runs in Florida, or runs somewhere else, the last chance will be Oaklawn to get into the [Kentucky] Derby.” Cella said the calendar for next season would again include having a dark day on the day after the Arkansas Derby. If it is run three weeks out on a Saturday, the date of next year’s race would be April 10. “We learned to take a break after our Arkansas Derby,” Cella said. “We did it this year. Our derby is so big and popular that we drew 73,000 people, doubling the population of Hot Springs. It’s a huge, huge weekend, from racing, to the hotel, to the resort. Hot Springs is just booming, and that Sunday break is just needed by everybody to catch their breath, and that’s the way it should be.” Oaklawn is gathering opinions from various stakeholders on potential changes to its major 3-year-old preps, said Cella. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.