HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park is considering moving to a four-day race week for the majority of its meet next season in conversations being held with horsemen and Hot Springs community leaders, according to track president Lou Cella.
Oaklawn’s current meet format features a three-day race week, from Friday through Sunday.
Jockey Umberto Rispoli has a set routine on Thursday nights, the eve of the start of racing weekends at Santa Anita. Part of the evening is devoted to studying his upcoming mounts.
Lately, the homework has paid off.
Rispoli has had four two-win days at Santa Anita this month, including two stakes wins on March 1 aboard Formidable Man in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile and the exciting Kentucky Derby prospect Journalism in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes.
“I couldn’t be more happy with the way things are going,” Rispoli said on Thursday.
The adjustment on the calendar of two Grade 1 turf events and a rearranging of the New York-bred stakes program are among the changes the New York Racing Association has made to the 2025 Saratoga stakes schedule, which was released on Thursday.
The stakes program for the 40-day Saratoga meet that runs July 10-Sept. 1 will include 64 events worth $20,330,000. The previously announced July Fourth Racing Festival, while held at Saratoga (July 3-6), is not considered part of the Saratoga summer meet.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Subsanador, unraced since a win in the Grade 1 California Crown at Santa Anita last September, will have a delayed comeback from an ankle injury and will not resume training until late summer, trainer Richard Mandella said.
Subsanador recently underwent diagnostic tests that showed he needed additional time for recovery.
“He’ll get four more months and we’ll X-ray it again,” Mandella said. “We’ve sent him to Kentucky. We’ll give him more time. The main thing is to get him back.”
ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita will run a rare non-holiday four-day racing week starting on Friday, recently adding Monday as a makeup day for a weekend of races lost in January because of the wildfires fires that struck Los Angeles County.
Track officials said recently that there may be more dates added to the schedule before the end of the spring season on June 15, depending on availability of horses.
“We want to run as much as we can,” said track general manager Nate Newby.
Jockey Gokhan Kocakaya, once a leading rider in Turkey, intends to pursue more mounts in Maryland after notable early success. In his Laurel debut last Friday, Kocakaya won both races in which he rode.
“I found that here, there’s a chance, so I came here,” Kocakaya said. “And I think everything went fine. I think I want to stay here.”
A rematch at Laurel between 3-year-old rivals Barbadian Runner and Pay Billy will likely have to wait. While both horses are nominated to the $100,000 Private Terms Stakes on March 22, trainer Henry Walters does not plan on entering Barbadian Runner.
“After his last race, I gave him a little break, a four-week freshener where he’s going to swim and do a little treadmill work,” Walters said. “He’s coming back to the track at the end of this month. I’m not going to run him in the Private Terms.”
Post Time, runner-up in last year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, will soon start breezing at the Fair Hill Training Center for trainer Brittany Russell. The 5-year-old is not being pointed toward any races yet, but he should begin his campaign this summer.
“We’re just letting him come along and when he’s ready, he’ll tell us,” Russell said. “When we get him back on the work tab, we’ll make a plan from there.”
Pima County in Southern Arizona has reissued a request for proposals to select an operator for the racetrack at Tucson's Rillito Park after a previous bidding process fell apart, according to the county.
The RFP seeks an operator for racing meets beginning in 2026. Rillito last ran a live race meet in 2023. The 2024 race meet was canceled after the previous leaseholder, Rillito Racing Inc., let its lease expire without addressing concerns from the county about a lack of financial audits and required maintenance at the track.
