Oaklawn Park begins its 2025-26 racing season Dec. 12 with the $150,000 Advent Stakes, the opening marker of a record 62 stakes worth more than a total of $18.3 million this winter and upcoming spring at the Hot Springs, Ark., track.
Entries were taken for the Advent and the rest of the opening day card Dec. 5, with the feature luring seven 2-year-olds to race 5 1/2 furlongs, led by Kentucky invaders Ganaas and Spun D M C. In total, 109 horses, plus 14 also-eligibles, are entered for the 10 races on opening day.
Oaklawn is dividing its 2025-26 racing schedule into two parts: a Holiday Meet from Dec. 12-Jan. 4, followed by a pause of more than three weeks before its Classic meet Jan. 30-May 2.
Sub-freezing conditions can at times impact winter training and racing at Oaklawn. High temperatures in the low 50s are expected for opening day.
With rich purses thanks, in part, to the track's casino, demand from horsemen to race at Oaklawn is high. Maidens race for $100,000.
According to the track, 130 trainers—including all of last season's top-10—applied for nearly 2,500 horses to compete for just 1,470 available stalls. Oaklawn races exclusively on dirt.
"That level of interest reaffirms Oaklawn's position as one of the nation's most competitive racing destinations and ensures our fans will witness the finest Thoroughbreds and connections from across the country," Oaklawn Park president Louis Cella said.
Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, who this past spring won Oaklawn's richest race, the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) with Sandman, plans to bring that colt back to Arkansas. Other Casse stable stars likely to join him at some point during the meet include Nitrogen, La Cara, and Ewing.
Sandman, owned by D. J. Stable, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and CJ Stables, has recorded a couple breezes this winter at Casse Training Center near Ocala, Fla.
Besides Casse, other prominent trainers scheduled to race at Oaklawn include Steve Asmussen, Brad Cox, Peter Miller, Tom Amoss, Phil D'Amato, David Jacobson, John Ortiz, Saffie Joseph Jr., Chris Hartman, Cipriano Contreras, Greg Compton, and Ron Moquett.
Francisco Arrieta, last season's leading rider, faces an expanded jockey colony that includes the addition of Hall of Famer Joel Rosario and Luis Saez, the fourth-leading rider in North America by earnings.
In the Advent, Saez rides Spun D M C, runner-up in the Oct. 25 Bowman Mill Stakes at Keeneland after a debut victory at Churchill Downs for trainer Randy Morse. Morse co-owns Spun D M C, a Spun to Run colt, with UPcountry Farm.
Topped by the Arkansas Derby, Oaklawn will offer the highest stakes purses for horses seeking to advance toward the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs in the spring.
More than $3 million is up for grabs in 2026 at Oaklawn for 3-year-old fillies seeking to qualify for the Kentucky Oaks. The purse for the March 27 Fantasy Stakes (G2) is up to $1 million in 2026, and the March 1 Honeybee Stakes (G3) now stands at $750,000. Those graded events, and the $300,000 Martha Washington Stakes on Jan. 31 are all points races on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks.
Road to the Kentucky Derby participants can pursue qualifying points in the $250,000 Smarty Jones on Jan. 3, the $1 million Southwest Stakes (G3) on Jan. 31, the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) on March 1 and the Arkansas Derby (G1) on March 28. The Arkansas Derby is the richest Derby prep for 3-year-olds in North America.
Oaklawn Park, Friday, December 12, 2025, Race 8Entries: Advent S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Walter the Mason (KY) Cristian A. Torres 121 Greg Green - 2 Dirty Rich (KY) Ramon A. Vazquez 117 Peter Miller - 3 Chad Allan (KY) Tyler W. Bacon 117 Robert A. Young - 4 Boca Beach Club (KY) Ricardo Santana, Jr. 117 James P. DiVito - 5 Ganaas (KY) Edgar Morales 124 Andrew McKeever - 6 Spun D M C (KY) Luis Saez 117 Randy L. Morse - 7 Strong Potential (KY) Joel Rosario 117 Steven M. Asmussen -
