A few of the winter season’s greatest grime racing is coming to the Midwest with the opening of the Oaklawn Park 2024-’25 meet on Friday, Dec. 6. Racing at Oaklawn boasts huge fields, good betting races for handicappers, a wonderful stakes program, and really sturdy purses all through its five-month season that can lengthen till Kentucky Derby day, Might 3.
The Scorching Springs, Ark. observe will provide each day purses averaging $900,000 and racing will likely be performed totally on a three-days-a-week foundation plus holidays. Probably the most high-profile a part of the Oaklawn season would be the observe’s intensive stakes schedule encompassing 47 stakes races with purses totaling $16.2 million. The headline occasion of the meet would be the $1.5 million, Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on March 29. Different stakes races for Kentucky Derby hopefuls can even have seven-figure purses together with the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes on Jan. 25 and the Grade 2, $1.25 million Insurgent Stakes on Feb. 22. Oaklawn additionally will provide two extra races price $1.25 million apiece – the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap for fillies and mares on April 12 and the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 19.
Get to Know Oaklawn Park
For horseplayers, the Oaklawn Park meet is rather more about its glorious day-to-day handicapping choices than it’s about stakes races. The grime racing contested all through the season at Oaklawn is on par with the most effective grime racing being performed wherever presently of 12 months. Subsequently, Oaklawn will likely be a focus for a lot of bettors for the winter racing season till early spring.
Oaklawn is grime racing-only with no turf course. The Oaklawn grime observe is a one-mile oval, and the overwhelming majority of its races will likely be run at three distances – six furlongs, one mile, and 1 1/16 miles. There may be an alternate end line on the sixteenth pole which accommodates one-mile races with a good run-up into the primary flip.
To get a handicapping leg up on the meet, let’s begin by some post-position and working model preferences on the Oaklawn observe structure on the numerous key distances of six furlongs, one mile, and 1 1/16 miles.
Oaklawn handicappers might need observed the previous few years that exterior working paths have been efficient no matter a horse’s put up place. There has typically been a discernable exterior circulate to a lot of Oaklawn’s races the previous 4 years as exterior paths have appeared preferable on many days. It’s not unusual to see exactas like 11-12 or 8-9 coming in, so listen and attempt to decide if the observe is favoring exterior paths.
Oaklawn Most well-liked Working Kinds
From a statistical standpoint, inside pace horses and different horses from inside posts nonetheless do the most effective in Oaklawn routes. Put up positions regularly get much less efficient as you go outward from the within three posts.
On the distance of 1 1/16 miles in a pattern of 138 races run on the 2023-’24 Oaklawn season, inside posts 1-3 gained 41% of the races, center posts 4-6 gained 37% of the races, and outdoors posts gained 22%. These percentages have been pretty constant every of the final 5 years.
By way of working kinds, horses on or near the tempo (outlined for this text as main or inside a size of the chief) gained 28% of the races at 1 1/16 miles final season. Stalkers, as outlined as coming from between one and 4 lengths off the tempo, did greatest with wins in 55 of the 138 races to account for 40%. Closers coming from greater than 4 lengths off the tempo did surprisingly effectively and gained 32% of the 1 1/16-mile races, which means that closers statistically did higher than speedsters at this distance final season.
On the distance of 1 mile, from a pattern of 84 races run final season, early pace horses did a lot better than at 1 1/16 miles. This maybe is as a result of the alternate end line at a mile results in a brief stretch run to the end line. Speedsters gained 34 of the 84 Oaklawn miles final season to win 40% of the races and had been equally efficient from all posts. Stalkers and closers every gained 30% of the races. This marked an enormous enchancment for closers final season versus the three years earlier than once they accounted for wins in simply 23% of the races at one mile.
Inside, center, and outdoors posts had been all remarkably honest final season at one mile, the place you’d count on inside posts to get pleasure from a bonus, maybe as a result of exterior circulate to the observe talked about above that Oaklawn has appeared to develop.
Oaklawn Dash Profitable Profiles
There have been 389 dash races run final season at Oaklawn, and 378 of them had been on the distance of six furlongs. Common subject dimension at Oaklawn continues an upward trajectory and reached 9.4 runners per dash final season.
Oaklawn sprints are rather more conducive to hurry than routes, and early pace is the strongly most popular working model. Horses on or near the tempo gained 186 of the 389 sprints final season to account for wins in 48% of the races. Outcomes obtained worse the farther you had been behind. Stalkers gained 32% of final season’s Oaklawn sprints, whereas closers gained simply 21%. When making an attempt to choose winners in Oaklawn sprints, working model is a way more essential issue than put up positions. Posts had been honest throughout the beginning gate in sprints final season, however take notice that stalkers, particularly, carried out a lot better from exterior posts than from inside posts.
Oaklawn Jockeys
There was a altering of the guard within the Oaklawn jockey standings the final couple of the years. Followers accustomed to seeing Ricardo Santana Jr. atop the leaderboard now search for Cristian Torres to journey essentially the most winners on the meet.
The 2023-’24 Oaklawn using title went to Torres for the second straight 12 months with 82 wins from 457 mounts for an 18% win proportion. Torres was additionally the 2022-’23 main rider at Oaklawn when he gained 100 races from 487 starters for 21%. Torres beat out second-leading rider Keith Asmussen final 12 months by a large margin as Asmussen gained 58 races for 16%. The second-leading rider two years in the past, Francisco Arrieta, slid to 3rd with 49 wins (12%) final 12 months, which was an enormous dip in manufacturing from the place he was when he gained 83 races for 21% in 2022-’23.
Santana was the multi-year using champion at Oaklawn with meet titles from 2013 via 2018, and 2020 and 2021. Santana began using fewer mounts two years in the past however nonetheless gained 51 races (19%) in 2022-’23. Final 12 months, he was right down to 39 wins (17%), which was tied for sixth within the standings. Santana has lengthy fashioned a deadly jockey-trainer mixture with Steve Asmussen at Oaklawn, however they workforce up on fewer winners at Oaklawn nowadays with Keith Asmussen taking plenty of the mounts that used to go to Santana.
Together with Torres, Asmussen, Arrieta, and Santana, the opposite jockey you’ll be able to search for within the Oaklawn Park prime 5 this season will likely be Ramon Vazquez, a stalwart within the Oaklawn jockey standings for greater than a decade who typically performed second fiddle behind Santana throughout Santana’s run of meet titles. Vazquez is redoubling his efforts at Oaklawn this season after ending seventh in final 12 months’s standings with 39 wins (12%).
Oaklawn Prime Trainers
Steve Asmussen is the 13-time main coach at Oaklawn Park, who equaled Cole Norman’s 2003 report with 71 wins (71-for-461, 15%) final 12 months. Asmussen additionally set the Oaklawn all-time single-season mark for purse earnings with $6.68 million for the meet, which will likely be a tricky act to comply with. Asmussen is approaching 1000 profession victories at Oaklawn and will eclipse that milestone this season. One key to Asmussen’s success final season was that he actually targeted on the newer December a part of the Oaklawn meet after getting off to sluggish begins within the two years earlier than.
One coach you in all probability don’t have to fret about getting off to a sluggish begin at Oaklawn is Brad Cox, who yearly enjoys quick begins at Oaklawn. Cox recorded three wins and three seconds together with his first seven Oaklawn starters of the 2023-’24 meet. He had gained three of his 12 December begins on the 2022-’23 meet, and had blazing scorching begins three and 4 years in the past — he gained 9 of his first 23 races three years in the past and 5 of his first 13 races 4 years in the past. Cox doesn’t begin sufficient horses at Oaklawn to compete for the meet coaching title, however he’s the win-percentage king among the many top-tier of trainers at Oaklawn. General, he went 26-for-102 for 25% final season, and had comparable excessive win percentages within the seasons prior when he gained 21% in 2022-’23, 12 months, 24% in 2021-’22, and 27% on the 2021 meet.
Two years in the past, Robertino Diodoro led the Oaklawn meet with 61 winners from 266 starters for twenty-four%, however final 12 months he dropped all the way in which right down to fourth place with a 27-for-149 report (18%).
Ken McPeek had an enormous season at Oaklawn Park final 12 months when he was the second-leading coach with 30 wins from 162 starters for 19%. Amongst his winners finally 12 months’s meet had been Mystik Dan within the Southwest Stakes and Thorpedo Anna within the Fantasy Stakes. Thorpedo Anna went on to win the 2024 Longines Kentucky Oaks and Mystik Dan went on to win the 2024 Kentucky Derby Offered by Woodford Reserve.
Chris Hartman completed third in final 12 months’s Oaklawn coach standings with 28 wins (19%) in a very good follow-up to his even higher meet in 2022-’23 when he had 37 wins for 26%. Search for Hartman to complete within the prime 5 as soon as once more.
Different choose trainers for handicappers to pay attention to at Oaklawn this season embrace Norm Casse, who gained 11 races from 52 starters final 12 months for 21% after profitable 13 of 38 begins for 34% two years in the past. Cipriano Contreras additionally has been a high-percentage winner at Oaklawn not too long ago, together with a 22-for-84 report in 2023-’24. Ron Moquett begins a ton of horses at Oaklawn. He was sixth within the win standings final 12 months with 22 winners and completed because the fifth-leading coach two years in the past with 19 victories.
Some high-profile trainers who upset final 12 months included McLean Robertson (6-for-110, 5%), Eusebio Rufino (5-for-96, 5%), Timothy Martin (5-for-137, 4%), and Robert Cline (4-for-120, 3%).
There are 5 months of nice racing forward at Oaklawn Park. Issue Oaklawn’s prevailing biases and prime human connections into your handicapping, and you should have an enormous benefit over your fellow horseplayers. Better of luck and benefit from the season.
