Remington Park 2025 meet features new turf sprint stakes, adjusted schedule
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The Remington Park meet opening Friday night will feature a new stakes designed to draw turf sprinters prepping for the Breeders’ Cup, a three-day race week, and an earlier post time.
The 62-date meet runs through Dec. 20.
Remington is opening about a week and a half earlier in a move that accommodates shifting from racing four days per week to three, on Thursdays through Saturdays. The schedule will be in place until December, when the track goes back to a four-day week by adding Wednesdays.
There is one Sunday card during the season and it will be the occasion for Remington to introduce the $250,000 Great West Turf Sprint, a five-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up. It will be run on the Oklahoma Derby Day card on Sept. 28.
“We’ve been talking about trying to create a new and somewhat different stakes race for our schedule for a few years now and just doing some research, we tried to build a turf sprint, which has become a very popular type race in the last 10, 15 years,” said Dale Day, the announcer at Remington. “We had a few small ones, but nothing for open company, really, and we decided to add that, put a decent purse on it, and we named it the Great West because many years ago, back in the 80s and 90s, we had a Great West Stakes.
“It was actually a prep race for our 3-year-old spring series back when we ran a spring season, but we haven’t run that race in many years, so we brought that name back, put it on this turf race. And the idea is put it on Oklahoma Derby Day, which is always roughly four to 5 1/2 weeks away, usually, from Breeders Cup, so it gives another opportunity for those turf sprinters that might be looking for a spot, one more spot, positioned a month or so before Breeders’ Cup.”
The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby will anchor the card of eight stakes that starts at 3 p.m. Central. The $200,000 Remington Park Oaks will again be on the program, while the $150,000 Clever Trevor for 2-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs has been added to the lineup for a card which will be worth $1.3 million.
In the past, the Kip Deville for 2-year-olds had been run on Oklahoma Derby Day and the Clever Trevor was in November.
“We combined the monies,” Day said. “We boosted the Clever Trevor, put it on Oklahoma Derby Day, trying to build another decent undercard race to give people trying to make a decision to ship a horse in for the Derby or Oaks – or now even the Great West Turf Sprint – another opportunity for a divisional-type race.”
The meet’s $3.4 million stakes schedule features a total of 32 races. The Oklahoma Classics card is Oct. 17, while the $300,000 Springboard Mile – a points race for the Kentucky Derby – anchors a card of six stakes on Dec. 20.
Coal Battle won last year’s Springboard over Speed King, and the horses would go on to win three of the four major 3-year-old preps at Oaklawn Park. Coal Battle took the Smarty Jones and Rebel before finishing 11th in the Kentucky Derby. By virtue of the horse’s Springboard win, Coal Battle has earned a fees-paid berth into the Oklahoma Derby.
The Springboard card was run on a Friday night last season but will be held on a Saturday this meet. First post will be 5 p.m. Central.
Regular post time will be 6 p.m. Central, a half-hour earlier than last year and an hour earlier than prior meets. Day said the decision was made with horsemen and in consideration of exporting the track’s signal.
Remington is racing five fewer dates this meet on account of its three-day race week but intends to run the same number of races as usual. Purses are projected to average $275,000 per card.
Jockey Ramon Vazquez is returning after riding in other jurisdictions the past several years, and the multiple local title winner will face a strong colony that includes Stewart Elliott, who last week celebrated the Hall of Fame induction of his most notable mount, Smarty Jones, and Jose Alvarez, who is back after recuperating from injuries sustained in March.
Remington’s all-time leading rider, the retired Cliff Berry, has a race named in his honor this meet. The $50,000 Cliff Berry Turf Sprint Handicap is for Oklahoma-breds on Sept. 12.
On the wagering front, Remington plans to add a third pick four to its nightly menu, Day said.
◗ Cooper Lutkenhaus, the 16-year-old phenom runner who on Sunday earned a spot on the U.S. track and field team for the world championships in Tokyo, spent a recent afternoon watching horses race at Lone Star Park. The North Texas resident came to the track to root on a pair of runners owned by a family friend, with both horses trained by Remington regular Joe Petalino.
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