For Immediate Release

Three additional December dates and another holiday Monday highlight Oaklawn’s 2024-2025 live racing schedule.

The Arkansas Racing Commission unanimously approved Oaklawn’s request Monday morning for 65 dates next season (Dec. 6-May 3). Racing will again be conducted primarily Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Oaklawn tweaked its 2024-2025 schedule because of calendar changes and business trends, track officials said.

Oaklawn will be dark April 20 in observance of Easter and dropped another Sunday, Feb. 9, the date of the Super Bowl.

“Very slow day for us, usually,” Oaklawn General Manager Wayne Smith said.

Oaklawn also dropped Thursdays in March and April. The only scheduled Thursday date is May 1, two days before the Kentucky Derby. The Dec. 20-22 dates (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) fall immediately before Christmas. Oaklawn had previously been dark that race week.

“Arkansas and Oaklawn lead the nation in a lot of things innovative,” Oaklawn President Louis Cella said. “Our fans respond to weekend racing. When you look at other tracks, their non-weekend days are very slow. We’re hearing many tracks are going to follow suit. Unfortunately, I think that’s just horse racing. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have big, great race weekends, as you saw in our season this year.”

Oaklawn is scheduled to race on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday (Jan. 20) for the first time since 2018. Oaklawn will continue to race on another holiday Monday, Presidents’ Day (Feb. 17). There will be no racing New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day because Oaklawn is normally dark those days (Tuesday and Wednesday).

“Just the way the calendar falls,” Cella said.

Oaklawn has had New Year’s Eve cards exclusively for 2-year-olds, including two stakes (Renaissance for sprinters and Year’s End for fillies at one mile), the last two years. Its first Kentucky Derby points race, the Smarty Jones Stakes, has been run New Year’s Day the last three years.

Nothing has been finalized, Cella said, but making the 1 1/16-miles Smarty Jones a points race for 2-year-olds is on the table.

“That’s a possibility,” Cella said. “You flip them. You have a 2-year-old day, but you just stack up the stakes.”

Mystik Dan, who finished fifth in the 2024 Smarty Jones, returned to win Oaklawn’s $800,000 G3-Southwest Stakes Feb. 3, run third in the Arkansas Derby March 30 and win Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Catching Freedom, the 2024 Smarty Jones winner, captured the G2-Louisiana Derby and finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby.

Angel of Empire, the 2023 Smarty Jones runner-up, returned to capture Oaklawn’s G1-Arkansas Derby and finish third as the Kentucky Derby favorite.

Mystik Dan punctuated a banner two days for 2023-2024 Oaklawn runners at Churchill Downs.

Six other Oaklawn-raced horses won stakes races, notably Thorpedo Anna in Friday’s $1.5 million G1-Kentucky Oaks – the country’s biggest race for 3-year-old fillies – and First Mission in Friday’s $750,000 G2-Alysheba for older horses. Thorpedo Anna won Oaklawn’s $750,000 G2-Fantasy Stakes and First Mission won Oaklawn’s $600,000 G3-Essex Handicap.

Oaklawn raced 63 days during the 2023-2024 meeting that concluded Sunday.

Finish Lines

Jockey Rafael Bejarano rode two winners Sunday to finish the 2023-2024 meeting with 100 for his Oaklawn career. Bejarano won the fifth race aboard favored Baton Rouge ($3.80) for trainer Chris Hartman and the seventh race aboard Henro ($8.60) for Hartman. Bejarano, in his second season as an Oaklawn regular, rode 48 winners to finish fourth in the standings. Bejarano rode 42 winners last season at Oaklawn. He missed the final 14 days of racing to return to Kentucky for Keeneland’s opening. Bejarano opted to remain at Oaklawn until closing day this year (15 racing days) and won 20 percent of his starts (17 of 85), including four stakes. Bejarano’s mounts generated $1,473,451 in purse earnings during that span. … Ramon Vazquez, Oaklawn’s co-sixth-leading rider this season with 39 victories, will be based in New York until racing resumes in December in Hot Springs, his agent, Bill Castle, said in a text message Tuesday night. Vazquez had been based in Southern California since April 2022 before returning to Oaklawn for the 2023-2024 meeting. … Trainer Jinks Fires of Hot Springs had his streak with at least one victory at every Oaklawn meeting since 1977 snapped in 2023-2024. Fires (477 victories) is the fourth-winningest trainer in Oaklawn history. … Oaklawn maiden special weights graduate Native Land is entered in the $200,000 G3-Peter Pan Stakes for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles Saturday at Aqueduct. … Oaklawn allowance winner Straight No Chaser, Oaklawn starter-allowance winner Stage Left and Oaklawn-raced Durante are entered in the $175,000 G3-Runhappy Stakes (G3) for older horses at six furlongs Saturday at Aqueduct.