HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park might be more than 120 years old, but its team has managed to give each passing meet a fresh feel. That will again be the case Friday when the Arkansas track launches a 64-date season that continues through May 2.
The changes start with a new racing format. Oaklawn will put on a holiday meet through Jan. 4. Then, after a three-week break, the track will return with a classic meet from Jan. 30 to May 2.
Oaklawn Park in Arkansas will figure more prominently in trainer Peter Miller’s plans in coming months.
Miller, based at the San Luis Rey Downs training center near San Diego, said on Wednesday that he will have 21 of his approximately 60-horse stable at Oaklawn Park for the track’s 2025-2026 meeting that begins on Friday.
“It’s my biggest string yet in Arkansas,” he said from his stable at San Luis Rey Downs. “That’s really my current focus.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nobody was looking forward to the $125,000 Tropical Park Oaks here Saturday more than the Tampa Bay Downs-based trainer Gerald Bennett, whose Crafty Collector figured to be among the favorites in the final Florida stakes this season in which 3-year-old fillies get to race against their own age group.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As is the case every year, trainers Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown are watching several accomplished horses leave their barn for the breeding shed. As is the case, almost every year, there appear to be suitable replacements to fill the void.
Pletcher bid adieu to older males Fierceness, Locked, and Mindframe, who in 2025 alone combined to win four Grade 1 stakes.
Trainer Scott Volk, who primarily worked at Finger Lakes and Monmouth Park in a career spanning five decades, passed away on Tuesday, Dec. 2, from heart failure caused by a fall. He was 73.
Volk began his career as a groom at Finger Lakes in the 1970s before becoming a trainer, notching his first win with Lord Edmundo in a 1978 claiming race. He went on to run horses at dozens of tracks along the East Coast, earning 539 victories, including 10 stakes, and more than $9.5 million in purse money in 3,450 career starts.
The former claimer Bartholdy will be entered in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 after recording an upset win in a tough 6 1/2-furlong allowance at Del Mar on Nov. 30. The $200,000 Pincay Stakes is run at 1 1 1/16 miles.
Bartholdy, claimed for $50,000 in August 2024, disputed the pace throughout the Nov. 30 race and won by 1 1/4 lengths. He earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
The performance convinced trainer and co-owner Steve Knapp to consider the Pincay Stakes.
Ag Bullet, second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint against males at Del Mar last month, is going on vacation this week with an undetermined future.
Trainer Richard Baltas said on Sunday that the 5-year-old mare may be retired to be bred or could race next year. A decision is expected in the coming months.
Liberation and Cecilia Street, the first two finishers in Sunday’s $100,000 Soviet Problem Stakes at Los Alamitos, are likely to have a rematch next month at Santa Anita. Their respective trainers, John Sadler and Leonard Powell, said on Monday that the $175,000 California Cup Oaks for 3-year-old statebred fillies at a mile on turf is a logical goal.
Liberation, a winner of 3 of 6 starts, has yet to start on turf, but Sadler said her pedigree “plus her action” are two reasons to give the surface a try. Liberation is by Omaha Beach out of Ponytail, by Lonhro.
This year, trainer Gregg Sacco enjoyed a terrific winter and early spring with Crazy Mason, who reeled off three straight wins at Aqueduct capped by a Grade 2 victory in the Carter Stakes in early April.
In 2026, Sacco hopes to experience similar success with Just Beat the Odds, who came off an eight-month layoff to win last Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Elite Power Stakes at Aqueduct.
It was the first stakes victory for Just Beat the Odds, but Sacco hopes not the last.
Pat Pope has the easiest job in racing. At least that was the case on Friday.
Oaklawn Park’s longtime racing secretary had owners, trainers, assistant trainers, and jockey agents beating down the doors and lighting up phone lines with entries for the 10-race season opener on Dec. 12.
That’s what happens when purses are projected to average more than $900,000 a card for the 64-date meet that runs through May 2.
