Oaklawn Park

HOT SPRINGS, Ark--Clever Again (c, 3, American Pharoah--Flattering {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), coming off a 3 1/4-length maiden score, made the jump to stakes company with aplomb Sunday, going wire-to-wire to win the Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn Park. The 6-5 shot set fractions of :23.76 and :46.98 with even-money favorite Gaming (Game Winner) tracking in second. Clever Again opened up on the final turn and sailed clear to an easy four-length victory, completing the mile in 1:37.13. It was jockey Jose Ortiz's fifth win in two days of racing...

Travel plans for the GI Arkansas Derby runners are taking shape as top two Sandman (Tapit) and Publisher (American Pharoah) are scheduled to make the move to Churchill Monday. Positive prognoses abound Sunday as trainers prepared their charges for the haul to Churchill Downs ahead of the final preparations for the first Saturday in May. Sandman relished not only the added distance, as his dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse predicted, but also the meteoric pace up front courtesy of Cornucopian (Into Mischief) and Speed King (Volatile). His preliminary...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark--With 100 points to be deposited into their 'Road to the Kentucky Derby' account if they had the grit to take the GI Arkansas Derby, Sandman (Tapit) got his zzzs early in the race, then emerged from his power nap, rested and ready to face the rush hour. A maiden-breaker at second asking back at the Spa in early August, the colt ran through the initial portion of the Derby Trail in the fall where he was fifth in the GIII Iroquois Stakes and then third in the...

All the hype about Oaklawn's GII Fantasy Stakes Saturday being a two-horse race was on the nose. 'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (f, 3, Malibu Moon--Benner Island, by Speightstown), so talented but so often a bridesmaid before winning the GIII Honeybee Stakes last out, faced unbeaten Simply Joking (Practical Joke), light on experience but winner of two black-type events at Fair Grounds. It was Quietside, the Shortleaf Stable homebred, who got the measure of Simply Joking Saturday and picked up 100 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. The Fantasy...

In his second consecutive victory of the year, 'TDN Rising Star' Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo) survived a rider's objection to claim the Listed American Pharoah Stakes at Oaklawn. No worse than first or second in his career, the son of the late Uncle Mo was a winner last out Jan. 25 by 3 3/4 lengths against optional claimers at this venue and earned a 92 Beyer that matched his seasonal bow Jan. 5 when he lost the bob to Black Powder (Gun Runner), who also returned here. Two years ago,...

Trainer David Jacobson, who happens to be Banishing's co-owner, already collected a pair of wins on the Arkansas Derby undercard, but his biggest conditioning feat came in the GIII Oaklawn Mile Stakes on Saturday. Returning to one his favorite ovals, Banishing rattled off three wins in a row starting against optional claimers at Churchill Downs in late November, and then added an allowance score in Hot Springs Dec. 20, plus the Byerley Turk Overnight Stakes over course and distance Jan. 23. Last seen running a close second in the GIII...

9th-Oaklawn, $110,000, Msw, 3-28, 3yo/up, 1 1/16m, 1:44.75, gd, 1 length. MONEY GAME (c, 3, Candy Ride {Arg}--Miss Bling Bling, by Tapit) debuted with Lasix as a 7-1 shot here. The homebred was in no hurry out of the blocks and he trailed the field heading into the first turn. With a half-mile clocked at :47.03, the colt began to engage and he started a sweeping attack run around the the far turn. The chestnut's power was evident as he collared fellow firster and Triple Crown nominated Super Cruise (Uncle...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.--When 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Kentucky Oaks hopeful Quietside (Malibu Moon) jettisons like an escape pod from the Oaklawn Park gate in the GIII Fantasy Stakes on Saturday, the conflict between the light and the dark inside of John A. Ortiz will be at peace. It's the way of the trainer. In the sport of Thoroughbred racing, all conditioners develop coping mechanisms when it comes to managing raw emotion before the bell sounds, but Ortiz and his stable chooses to draw insight from 'A long time ago...

During his 22 years serving in the Kentucky State Senate, Damon Thayer was known as a fierce advocate for the horse racing industry. Thayer decided not to run for re-election in 2024, but that doesn't mean that he stopped trying to help the sport, using his considerable political acumen to do so. Thayer has accepted the job as the senior advisor to the Thoroughbred Racing Initiative--a group formed to try to fight off efforts to decouple the racing and casino and card room licenses in Florida. To talk about his...

After finishing as the runner-up on debut at Churchill Downs last summer, Kimchi Cat (Twirling Candy) graduated with a 3 1/2-length score at the Spa in mid-July. The dark bay took home the off-the-turf Bolton Landing Stakes trophy Aug. 18, but was well-beaten in the GIII Pocahontas Stakes under the Twin Spires Sept. 14. Turned out since the fall and then back on the tab in January, the 3-year-old went off as the 8-5 second choice here. Kimchi Cat sat just to the outside of pacesetter Battleshipper (Midshipman) up the...

For the second time at the current Oaklawn Park meet, jockey Rafael Bejarano has been fined $200 for misjudging the location of the finish line in a one-mile race. At Oaklawn, one-mile races end at the sixteenth pole under the track's long-established configuration for races at that distance. In this second instance of the season, Bejarano actually won the third race Mar. 16 by a length aboard 8-5 favorite Moon Over Choctaw (Malibu Moon). But according to the stewards' ruling, the 42-year-old jockey kept riding past the first wire at...

'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (Malibu Moon) put in her last major workout for the GII Fantasy Stakes, covering five furlongs in :59.60 Sunday morning at Oaklawn under Ramon Vazquez. The 'Rising Star's' time was the fastest of 26 published at the distance, with clockers catching her galloping out six furlongs in 1:12 and seven furlongs in 1:26.80. The track was rated fast. "It was a strong five-eighths," said trainer John Ortiz. "We'll come back next week and give her a maintenance [half-mile]. She did it really well today." Entries will...