Roll On Big Joe Rings the Bell With Win at Oaklawn Park

Roll On Big Joe is a horse of the country. Foaled in Florida, he won his first stakes race in February in California when he took the Palos Verdes Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park. Four months later, he added the Kelly's Landing Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs in Kentucky. And on Dec. 13, he capped his 2025 season by capturing the $150,000 Ring The Bell Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. Though Saturday's race was ungraded, he defeated graded-caliber competition. Four of his six rivals were graded stakes winners, including this summer's Charles Town Classic Stakes (G2) winner Banishing, whom Roll On Big Joe comfortably turned aside at the head of the lane to win by 1 1/4 lengths Roll On Big Joe, a 5-year-old Prospective gray/roan gelding, was somewhat surprisingly on the lead for much of the Ring The Bell, capitalizing when usual front-runner Skelly was again sluggish to start and cut off in early traffic. With jockey Julien Leparoux not needing to urge Roll On Big Joe to make the lead in the 6-furlong race, Roll On Big Joe entered the turn after a relatively easy opening quarter-mile in :22.66. Longshot Spankster and Banishing took turns applying a bit of pressure on the turn, but Roll On Big Joe shrugged off their bids after a half-mile in :45.88. He then rocketed home with a :23.66 final quarter-mile to stop the clock in 1:09.54 over a fast surface. Leparoux gave him just two right-handed strikes from his riding crop through the lane. The winner paid $6.40 to a $2 wager. Favored Banishing held second under Luis Saez, finishing 1 3/4 lengths clear of show finisher Tejano Twist, whose late run was compromised by the slow pace. Skelly, who made a bid into contention entering the stretch, flattened out to run fifth. The Bob Hess Jr.-trained Roll On Big Joe won for the sixth time in nine starts this year, his best annual campaign in a career that began in 2022. He now has lifetime earnings of $751,925 for owners Rancho Temescal, Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners, White Fence, and Richard Hale Jr. His career record is 9-6-1 in 22 starts. Roll On Big Joe had been cross-entered in the Dec. 13 Holiday Cheer Stakes at Turfway Park, but was scratched from that race to pursue the Ring The Bell. Turfway ultimately canceled racing Saturday due to a winter storm and rescheduled the Holiday Cheer and other stakes for Dec. 21. "I'm glad I came here to ride him," Leparoux said. Tim Cohen of Rancho Temescal traveled from his home in California to watch Roll On Big Joe compete in the Ring The Bell Stakes, which honors Oaklawn's "Ring The Bell" aftercare fundraising program. Appropriately, Cohen rang Oaklawn Park's winner's circle bell to signify a donation, as did Leparoux. "Julien rides him great, just drops his hands, puts them on the withers, and 'Joe' does it all," Cohen said. Bred by Max Ubide in Florida out of the Victory Gallop mare Nina's Gift, Roll On Big Joe was a $90,000 purchase by Rancho Temescal from the Gayle Woods consignment to the Ocala Breeders' Sales 2022 June Sale of 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age. He is among five winners from the six foals produced by his dam. None of the others are stakes winners. Prospective, who initially stood at Ocala Stud in Florida, was relocated to Korea in 2020 and died earlier this year at age 16.