For Immediate Release

The Oaklawn racing department listed 12 horses early Saturday afternoon that are under consideration for the 8 ½-furlong $800,000 G3-Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds Feb. 3.

Entries will be taken, and post positions drawn Sunday for the Southwest, which was postponed one week because of severe winter weather. The Southwest will offer 42 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top five finishers (20-10-6-4-2, respectively) toward starting eligibility.

Expected Southwest entrants are: Carbone for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, Just Steel (D. Wayne Lukas), Liberal Arts (Robbie Medina), Lightline (Brad Cox), Linebacker (Jordan Blair), Magic Grant (Eddie Milligan Jr.), Maycocks Bay (Michael Stidham), Mystik Dan (Kenny McPeek) and Otto the Conqueror (Asmussen).

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is scheduled to be represented in the Southwest, which he has won a record six times. Asmussen, Cox and McPeek could have additional starters.

Oaklawn’s Kentucky Derby points series continues with the $1.25 G2-million Rebel Stakes Feb. 24 and $1.5 million G1-Arkansas Derby March 30.

A Gold Sweep?

Gold Sweep, who broke his maiden in the $150,000 Tremont Stakes last summer at Belmont Park, is scheduled to make his 2024 debut in Sunday’s eighth race at Oaklawn, a one-mile allowance race for 3-year-olds. The purse is $140,000.

Gold Sweep will be making his two-turn debut in the split race for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Texas owner Mike McCarty. Gold Sweep is unraced since a fourth-place finish in the one-mile $500,000 G1-Champagne Stakes Oct. 7 at Aqueduct.

“Hope it’s the right spot for him,” Asmussen said. “Obviously, ran well early. Got a little off track with him. I think he’s better than that and expect him to run really well Sunday.”

Asked if Gold Sweep is auditioning for a Kentucky Derby points race, Asmussen said: “Of course.”

Asmussen is scheduled to have multiple starters in the $800,000 G3-Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 3

“Kind of unique circumstances in the fact that pushing back the Southwest is going to affect the Rebel, either positively or negatively,” Asmussen said. “But it will affect it, wheeling them back in three weeks. Hopefully, (Gold Sweep) handles his first two-turn race well and can be considered for the Rebel.”

A son of recently deceased sprint champion Speightstown, Gold Sweep (3-1 on the morning line) is scheduled to break from post 7 under Keith Asmussen. Gold Seep removes blinkers for his 3-year-old debut.

The 9-5 program favorite is Gettysburg Address for trainer Brad Cox. Gettysburg Address finished fourth in the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 1. The Smarty Jones was Oaklawn’s first Kentucky Derby points race.

Probable post time for the eighth race is 3:52 p.m. (Central).

Olivier Debuts Sunday

Olivier, a 4-year-old full brother to unbeaten 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline, is scheduled to make his career debut in Sunday’s fifth race at Oaklawn, a $115,000 maiden special weight sprint.

Rodolphe Brisset trains Olivier, a gray son of Tapit and Oaklawn-raced Feathered, for the colt’s breeder, Arkansas native Jane Lyon (Summer Wind Farm), WinStar Farm and Siena Farm. Olivier RNA’d for $390,00 in the August 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale (Flightline, then 3, only had one career start at the time).

“I needed somebody to call me to get this out of the way,” Brisset jokingly said in reference to a December article in Thoroughbred Daily News updating Olivier’s progress. “TDN did it.”

Brisset downplayed comparisons to Flightline, the John Sadler-trainee who capped a meteoric six-for-six lifetime campaign with a runaway score in the $6 million G1-0Breeders’ Cup Classic in November 2022 at Keeneland.

Brisset, late last year, projected a January debut for Olivier, who has logged seven published workouts at Oaklawn since Nov. 26. The last was a half-mile bullet (:47) out of the gate Jan. 10.

“He had a couple of setbacks,” Brisset said. “Just wanted to do right by him. Like I said in TDN, he’s not the same horse (as Flightline). I don’t want to compare, but I have to deal with it because he’s his full brother.”

Olivier, the 2-1 program favorite, is scheduled to break from post 4 under Oaklawn’s leading rider, Cristian Torres.

Probable post for the fifth race is 2:25 p.m. (Central).

For Immediate Release

HOT SPRINGS, AR (Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024) – Promise Keeper provided jockey Harry Hernandez with his first career Oaklawn stakes victory in Saturday’s $150,000 Fifth Season.

Adding blinkers and breaking from the rail, Promise Keeper ($16.20) led at every call, holding off 2-1 favorite Seize the Night by a half-length in the one-mile race for older horses. Millionaire multiple graded stakes winner Silver Prospector, another neck farther back in third, was followed, in order, by Logical Myth, Kupuna and Durante, who was never a factor after stumbling badly at the start. Brigadier General and Nautical Star were late scratches. 

Racing over a sloppy, sealed surface, Promise Keeper’s winning time was 1:40.93. Two-time Oaklawn training champion Robertino Diodoro conditions Promise Keeper for Canadian owner Randy Howg. A 6-year-old Constitution gelding, Promise Keeper won the fourth time in 16 lifetime starts to raise his career earnings to $442,610. The gelding was claimed for $80,000 Sept. 21 at Churchill Downs.

Hernandez, 27, is based at Oaklawn for the first time this season after winning riding titles at Turf Paradise and Canterbury Park.

Racing resumes Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (Central).

Fifth Season Quotes

Winning jockey Harry Hernandez: “Honestly, the plan was to go to the lead. I came out to the paddock. I asked (trainer) Robertino (Diodoro), ‘What do you think?’ He was like, ‘We’ve got blinkers on him. He breezed good. His best races are in the front. Let’s just send him.’ So, the horse broke good. He just went to the lead and did an awesome job. He did a good job of fighting to the end.” 

Winning trainer Robertino Diodoro: “I usually don’t like to give riders instructions, or not very often, but I did today. One of the few times it worked out. I told Harry, ‘You just ride this horse like you’re in Canterbury.’ I didn’t think we were the best horse in the race, but I thought with the circumstances of the track and the way the horse was going into the race, if we could get to the lead and on the rail, we had a chance of stealing it.”

For Immediate Release

A full field of 12 3-year-olds was entered Sunday for Oaklawn’s 8 ½-furlong $800,000 G3-Southwest Stakes, which will anchor a 12-race card Saturday, Feb. 3, that begins with a special early first post time of 11:30 a.m. CST.

The Southwest, along with three additional stakes races on the card, was postponed one week because of winter weather. The Southwest will offer 42 qualifying points to the top five finishers (20-10-6-4-2, respectively) toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. Probable post time for the Southwest, the 11^th race, is 4:50 p.m.

Southwest entrants from the rail out: Maycocks Bay for trainer Michael Stidham, Charleston (Jinks Fires), Magic Grant (Eddie Milligan Jr.), Otto the Conqueror (Steve Asmussen), Wynstock (Bob Baffert), Liberal Arts (Robbie Medina), Carbone (Asmussen), Common Defense (Kenny McPeek), Linebacker (Jordan Blair), Mystik Dan (McPeek), Just Steel (D. Wayne Lukas) and Awesome Road (Brad Cox).

Wynstock exits a victory in the $200,000 G2-Los Alamitos Futurity Dec. 16 at Los Alamitos. Baffert is seeking his record-extending seventh Southwest victory after winning its last two runnings with Newgrange in 2022 and Arabian Knight last year.

Cox has won six of Oaklawn’s last 13 Kentucky Derby points races, including the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 1. Awesome Road hasn’t started since finishing fifth as the favorite in the $400,000 G2-Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Nov. 25 at Churchill Downs.

Maycocks Bay and Common Defense were supplemental nominees.

In addition to the Southwest, the 1 1/16-miles $250,000 Martha Washington Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, $150,000 King Cotton Stakes for older sprinters and $150,000 American Beauty Stakes for older female sprinters will be run Feb. 3. Those races were also postponed one week because of winter weather. The Martha Washington offers 42 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks.

 Time for Truth?

Next-race plans are pending for Time for Truth after the unbeaten 3-year-old colt’s training schedule was disrupted earlier this month because of winter weather, trainer Ron Moquett said.

Time for Truth hasn’t worked since Dec. 24, a week before debuting with a sharp 1 ¾-length victory on the second card in Oaklawn history exclusively for 2-year-olds. Time for Truth, who covered 6 furlongs in 1:10.52, received a 102 Equibase Speed Figure, highest at the meeting for a 2021 foal.

Moquett said if Oaklawn hadn’t closed for training for 11 days (Jan. 13-23), Time for Truth would have been a candidate to make his two-turn debut in a split entry-level allowance race for 3-year-olds at one mile Sunday.

“With the fact that he hasn’t been able to train much and has but one start, we felt it was better for the horse to just wait a little bit and get a breeze into him and see where we’re at,” Moquett said.

Time for Truth became the first Oaklawn winner sired by millionaire 2019 Arkansas Derby champion Omaha Beach. Owner Harry Rosenblum purchased Time for Truth for $47,000 at the OBS Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training. Rosenblum sold an interest in Time for Truth shortly after his debut victory to Everett Dobson (Cheyenne Stables).

 Diodoro Strikes Again

Trainer Robertino Diodoro notched his 15^th career Oaklawn stakes victory when Promise Keeper captured Saturday’s one-mile $150,000 Fifth Season under Harry Hernandez.

The script was familiar, too, as Diodoro turned another high-priced older horse claim into an Oaklawn stakes winner. Diodoro, Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2020 and again last season, had previously accomplished that with Pioneer Spirit ($150,000 claim), Bal Harbour ($50,000) and Lone Rock ($40,000).

On behalf of Canadian owner Randy Howg, Diodoro won a two-way shake to claim Promise Keeper for $80,000 out of an 11^th-place finish in a Sept. 21 allowance/optional claimer at Churchill Downs.

After a disappointing fourth-place finish in the $75,000 Jeffrey A. Hawk Memorial Stakes Dec. 15 at Remington Park, Diodoro recouped his investment as Promise Keeper ($16.20) scored a front-running half-length victory in the Fifth Season. The Constitution gelding, now 6, was a Grade 3 winner for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Promise Keeper was racing in blinkers for the first time Saturday.

“Some old back class,” Diodoro said, explaining the claim. “We’ve always liked these kind of horses. Horse never had blinkers on. Had some speed at one point in his career. Thought maybe could get the speed back into him today, with the blinkers on. The Remington race was completely thrown into the garbage. Missed the break, hung out wide. The horse had been training great.”

Diodoro, in 2020, won the second division of the $100,000 Fifth Season with Pioneer Spirit and two Oaklawn stakes with Lone Rock – $200,000 Tinsel in 2021 and $150,000 Temperence Hill in 2022. Bal Harbour won the $200,000 Tinsel in 2022.

Diodoro said Promise Keeper will be considered for a race like the $600,000 G3-Razorback Handicap Feb. 24. Promise Keeper, still with Pletcher, finished fourth in the 1 1/16-mile race for older horses in 2022.

“We’ll take it one step at a time,” Diodoro said. “But for sure, we’ll look.”

Promise Keeper won for the fourth time in 16 starts to raise his lifetime earnings to $442,610. He won the $200,000 G3-Peter Pan Stakesin 2021 at Belmont Park.

The Fifth Season was the 348^th career Oaklawn victory for Diodoro – all since 2015 – and the first Oaklawn stakes victory for Hernandez, a newcomer to the 2023-2024 local riding colony. Diodoro is the 10^th-winningest trainer in Oaklawn history.