From the beginning, Oaklawn Park is going long in its 115th season of live racing, a virtual marathon compared to past years.
A two-turn race for older claiming horses Friday launches a meet extending past the track's traditional closing date in mid-April.
Under a schedule announced last spring and approved overwhelmingly by local horsemen, Oaklawn will race three additional weekends after its signature event, the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13. The 2019 Oaklawn season ends May 4 in conjunction with the 145th Kentucky Derby, now worth $3 million, at Louisville's iconic Churchill Downs.
Make no mistake, the Arkansas Derby remains the focal point of the Oaklawn season with the first of the track's four Kentucky Derby prep races on opening day.
Friday's $150,000 Smarty Jones drew nine 3-year-olds going one mile in a race with points distributed on a 10-4-2-1 basis to the top four finishers for a possible start in the Kentucky Derby. The Smarty Jones is named for the beloved Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner of 2004 after a three-race sweep of the Southwest Stakes, Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby in Oaklawn's centennial racing season. It moves to the first-Friday slot on the racing schedule after previously anchoring the track's January holiday program on Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday.
Following the Grade 3 $500,000 Southwest on Feb. 18, Oaklawn features back-to-back Kentucky Derby preps with $1 million purses. The Grade 2 Rebel, which like the Southwest is a mile and one-sixteenth, was bumped up $100,000 for its March 16 running. The Arkansas Derby, at a mile and an eighth, holds at $1 million with a Grade 1 (highest) level.
Sorting out Derby contenders is a highlight of any Oaklawn season, beginning in Friday's late daily double with the Smarty Jones (race 8) and a $77,000 offering for maiden 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles.
Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, a past winner and 2018 finalist for the Eclipse Award winner, has three in the Smarty Jones with two-time stakes winner Long Range Toddy and Bankit one-two in Remington Park's Springboard Mile last month. Richard Eramia rides polesitter Long Range Toddy with 122 pounds and Ricardo Santana Jr. pilots Bankit from post seven carrying 119. Boldor, also trained by Asmussen, goes from post five with Ramon Vazquez carrying 119.
Two last-out stakes winners in Louisiana bear watching. Paul Holthus sends out Six Shooter, the Big Drama winner last weekend at Delta Downs, and Jinks Fires comes back with Gray Attempt, the Sugar Bowl champ at Fair Grounds. Stewart Elliott, first attracting local attention aboard Smarty Jones for trainer John Servis, has the mount on Six Shooter from post four, and Shaun Bridgmohan leads the speedy Gray Attempt from post eight.
Super Steed, a Churchill Downs winner against maidens last fall but fourth as the Sugar Bowl favorite, is here for trainer Larry Jones. So is Churchill Downs maiden winner Jack Van Berg, named for the late Hall of Fame trainer and conditioned by son Tom.
Oaklawn's first live race Friday is 12:30 p.m. with the Smarty Jones set for 3:52 p.m.
Sports on 01/20/2019