There is a vacancy for the role of leading rider at Los Alamitos, which begins a two-week daytime Thoroughbred meeting on Friday.
Ramon Vazquez won or tied for the riding title at five brief meetings at Los Alamitos from the summer of 2022 through September of this year. Vazquez has since relocated to Oaklawn Park, which opens its winter-spring meeting on Friday.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The $150,000 Advent Stakes that heralds the arrival of the Oaklawn Park meet on Friday has the feel of a festive potluck dinner gathering ahead of Christmas.
There’s stakes winners from Indiana, Iowa, and Maryland to choose from in Molly’s Town, General Shipman, and Sweet Soddy J. Market Street is signed on for the 5 1/2-furlong stakes for 2-year-olds after a summer in which he ran second in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special.
In a vacuum, Stone Creator might be the most talented filly or mare in the featured eighth race Friday at Aqueduct. Races are not run in a vacuum, and while Stone Creator is sure to take betting, this New York-bred allowance might not be quite the right spot.
Stone Creator hasn’t run since April. To be sure, layoffs of several months generally are viewed too negatively by bettors. And while Stone Creator shows just three slowish timed workouts for this comeback, two half-miles and a five-eighths, she is more race-fit than the pattern suggests.
Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox will not be wasting any time determining how the talented 2-year-old colt Nash stacks up in stakes competition.
Nash scored a second-start maiden win Nov. 12 at Churchill Downs and is scheduled to have his third outing Dec. 23 at Fair Grounds in the $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes.
It’s difficult imagining Nash won’t be favored in the Gun Runner. A 2-year-old dirt route in December offering a $100,000 purse essentially is a glorified allowance race, and Nash has signaled he could be much more than merely an allowance horse.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Steve Asmussen might have the two fastest horses on the grounds at Oaklawn Park. Skelly put up a meet-high Beyer Speed Figure of 105 last season in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap and Jaxon Traveler recently covered six furlongs in a blazing 1:07.37 winning the $100,000 Zia Park Sprint.
Skelly was put away after winning the Speightstown Sprint in May at Lone Star Park in order to await the new season at Oaklawn. The horse has won his last five starts, with four coming at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s the Christmas gift that keeps giving.
The binoculars Matt Dinerman received from an aunt and uncle as a teenager are the same set he will be using Friday when he announces his first race at Oaklawn Park.
“They’re the ones I call the races with,” said the meet’s new voice.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park will launch the most lucrative winter meet in the nation on Friday, when it rolls out a racing program projected to average $900,000 a day in purses.
The 66-day meet runs through May 4.
The track-record riches come courtesy of gains in handle and a thriving casino. They include a 47-race stakes schedule worth $16.2 million. The centerpiece is the Arkansas Derby on March 30. Its purse has been boosted to $1.5 million in a move that puts its value at the same level as this year’s Preakness.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It’s no secret that Woodbine’s main track has been favoring inside runners of late. That’s not to say that the synthetic Tapeta surface is inside-biased on a daily basis, but the track profile has been that the inner path has been advantageous, especially on the far turn.
The stable area at Oaklawn Park has been filling up quicker than past meets and the horse population is reflected in entries for the Arkansas track’s opening weekend cards Friday and Saturday.
Oaklawn drew 109 horses for its 10-race card Friday, with four runners listed as also-eligibles for various races. The track will put on another 10 races Saturday with 121 horses entered, including nine also-eligibles.
Oaklawn had more than 900 horses already on the grounds in the days leading up to the first day of entries last Friday, according to track president Lou Cella.
