For Immediate Release

After a pedestrian start at the 2023-2024 Oaklawn meeting, jockey Cristian Torres said things would pick up after Christmas.

He was right.

Torres, Oaklawn’s leading rider last season, recorded a triple Monday, punctuated by favored Catching Freedom’s sharp victory in the 8 ½-furlong $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds. Torres also won Saturday’s $150,000 Poinsettia Stakes aboard High Class and another race Friday.

Torres’ five victories vaulted him into a third-place tie in the early standings. Emmanuel Esquivel has a meet-high nine victories after the first nine days of racing. Torres has seven victories and his $834,899 leads all jockeys in purse earnings. Torres, through the first two weekends of racing, had only two victories before Oaklawn’s 11-day Christmas break (Dec. 18-28).

Catching Freedom’s victory was noteworthy because it came in Oaklawn’s first Kentucky Derby points race. Trained by two-time Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, Catching Freedom ($5.40) collected 10 points for his 2 ½-length victory.

Torres had already won two other Kentucky Derby points races this season – $200,000 Street Sense Stakes (G3) Oct. 29 at Churchill Downs aboard Liberal Arts for trainer Robbie Medina and the $100,000 Gun Runner Stakes Dec. 23 at Fair Grounds aboard Track Phantom for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Liberal Arts and Track Phantom also earned 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points for their victories.

“Now, that makes it three,” Torres said of Catching Freedom. “It’s going to be hard on my agent (Cody Autrey) to pick it, but they’re all great horses, the three horses that I’ve been able to win on in these kind of races. Most simply, I’m very thankful for the opportunity.”

Torres, 26, has never ridden in the Kentucky Derby, but his career is clearly trending in that direction. Torres secured his first career riding title in December 2022 at Remington Park, then his second when he authored one of the greatest seasons in Oaklawn history at the 2022-2023 meeting. Torres finished with 100 victories – joining retired Hall of Famer Pat Day as the only riders in Oaklawn history to reach that total – and set a single-season Oaklawn record for purse earnings ($6,193,941). Day won an Oaklawn-record 137 races in 1986, 104 in 1990 and 101 in 1991.

Torres parlayed his success last season at Oaklawn into a solid summer and fall in Kentucky, where he was a regular for the first time.

“It was great,” Torres said. “I had a lot of opportunities during the summer, and I was really blessed to go to Kentucky for the first time. It was unbelievable. We won a lot of stakes and a lot of races at all the tracks there.”

Torres has 598 career North American victories, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization, including 148 at Oaklawn.

Liberal Arts returned to the work tab Thursday morning at The Thoroughbred Training Center in Kentucky, covering three furlongs in :36.20. Medina said Liberal Arts is pointing for the $800,000 G3-Southwest Stakes Jan. 27 at Oaklawn. The 1 1/16-miles Southwest is Oaklawn’s second Kentucky Derby points race, offering a total of 42 points (20, 10, 6, 4, 2) to the top five finishers.

Milestone Watch

Jockey Ramon Vazquez enters Friday with 399 career victories at Oaklawn, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Only 12 riders in Oaklawn history have reached 400 career victories.

Vazquez recorded his 399^th career Oaklawn victory in Monday’s seventh race aboard Maximus Magic ($14.20) for trainer Norman McKnight. Vazquez, 39, had missed the previous three racing days (Dec. 29-31) serving a suspension for a riding infraction last summer at Del Mar in Southern California.

Vazquez spent 11 consecutive seasons as an Oaklawn regular (2012-2022) – amassing 393 victories and eight top four finishes in the standings – before relocating to Southern California in April 2022.

Vazquez returned to Oaklawn as a regular for the 2023-2024 meeting that began Dec. 8. He has six victories this season.

For Immediate Release

Two wins Monday at Oaklawn pushed trainer Kenny McPeek’s career North American total to 1,986, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization.

McPeek won the first race with favored Dear Lady ($5.20) and the third race with favored Marco Sunset ($5.40). McPeek also won two races Sunday – the second card in Oaklawn history exclusively for 2-year-olds – including the $200,000 Year’s End Stakes with Ice Cold ($8.80). McPeek equaled a single-day career high with four victories, including the Year’s End and $150,000 Renaissance Stakes, on Oaklawn’s first all-2-year-old card in 2022.

McPeek has seven horses entered this weekend at Oaklawn, including Grade 3 winner Butterbean in the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles and Grade 2-placed Sun Thunder, who is scheduled to make his first start since early May in a one-mile $140,000 first-level allowance for older horses. Both races are Saturday.

Butterbean, a late-running daughter of Klimt, exits a half-length victory in Oaklawn’s one-mile $150,000 Mistletoe Stakes Dec. 9.

“The only thing is she’s tricky with the pace in the race, seeing how she runs like that,” McPeek said. “But she’s deserving of another chance. The timing’s good. We’ll see if she can pull off another one.”

Sun Thunder was among the four winners for McPeek on Oaklawn’s first all-2-year-old card, breaking his maiden by 6 ½ lengths at a mile in his two-turn debut. Sun Thunder made his next four starts in major Kentucky Derby prep races, highlighted by a runner-up finish in the $400,000 G2-Risen Star Stakes last February at the Fair Grounds. Risen Star winner Angel of Empire returned to win the $1.25 million G1-Arkansas Derby and finished third as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby.

Unraced since finishing 11^th in the Kentucky Derby, Sun Thunder has seven published workouts at Oaklawn since Nov. 18 in advance of his 4-year-old debut.

“He’s coming together pretty good,” McPeek said. “He had a little glute issue, a little glute muscle issue, and we just needed to give him a little break. He’s been rock solid.”

Butterbean and Sun Thunder are both 5-2 on the morning line for their respective races.

McPeek saddled his first winner in 1985 and had a career year in 2023, when his horses earned $10,773,078 in purses to rank 11^th in North America. He has a much greater presence at Oaklawn than past years with approximately 40 horses on the grounds and already has seven winners at the meet and 82 for his Oaklawn career.

Finish Lines

Entries will be taken and post positions drawn Sunday for the inaugural $150,000 Mockingbird Stakes for 3-year-old fillies Jan. 13 at Oaklawn. … Hess collected a $6,900 bonus for becoming the first horse at the 2023-2024 Oaklawn meeting to win without Lasix in Monday’s 10^th race, a $115,000 Arkansas-bred maiden special weight sprint for 3-year-olds and upward. Introduced at the 2015 meeting, Oaklawn’s Lasix-free Bonus Program awards a 10-percent bonus to the winner’s share of the purse for horses that win without running on the anti-bleeder medication. Randy Morse trains Hess for breeder/owner Randy Patterson. They also campaigned the 4-year-old gelding’s sire, millionaire Grade 1 winner Moonshine Mullin. … Through Monday, Day 9 of Oaklawn’s scheduled 66-day meeting, 80 claims had totaled $1,844,500.

Highland Falls, a 4-year-old son of multiple Oaklawn stakes winners Curlin and Round Pond, is entered in Saturday’s eighth race at Oaklawn, an 8 ½-furlong $142,000 conditioned allowance for older horses. Trained by Brad Cox, Highland Falls is two for three overall. … Truculent is entered in Sunday’s ninth race at Oaklawn for trainer Bentley Combs, a 1 1/16-mile starter allowance that is an audition for the closing-day 1 ¾-mile Trail’s End marathon. Combs and Ten Strike Racing have teamed to win the Trail’s End the past three years. Ten Strike co-owns Truculent and solely owns Tiger Moon, who is also entered in Sunday’s ninth race. Trained by Lindsay Schultz, Tiger Moon finished second in the 2023 Trail’s End. … High Class received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 80 for her front-running neck victory in the $150,000 Poinsettia Stakes for female sprinters, 3 and up, Dec. 30 at Oaklawn.