Jennifer Hoyt
Oaklawn Park

HOT SPRINGS, ARK. – Oaklawn, with a 3-year-old stakes program that has included the winner of four of the past six Triple Crown races, two recent Horse of the Year Award winners and back-to-back Kentucky Oaks winners, announces a 32-stakes program for the 2011 Season featuring purses of $4.6 million.

Oaklawn will be offering the highest overnight purse structure for the beginning of the 2011 racing season. The minimum purse will begin at $15,200 and maiden allowance races begin $36,000. In all, Oaklawn projects to offer more than $16.5 million in purses throughout 2011.

“We continue to be extremely pleased with the quality of our 3-year-old program,” said David Longinotti, assistant general manager of racing. “We will make every effort to maintain that focus into 2011 and beyond. We are in better shape today because of the success of our Instant Racing and electronic gaming facilities, and racing fans in Arkansas have always responded to top quality racing.”

Horses that ran in Oaklawn’s 3-year-old stakes program in 2010 included Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver (the runner-up in the Arkansas Derby); Preakness and Haskell winner Lookin at Lucky (winner of the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes) and Kentucky Oaks winner Blind Luck, who won the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes. The previous year, Oaklawn’s sophomore program featured Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra (Fantasy Stakes) and Champion 3-Year-Old Male Summer Bird.

The 2011 Racing Season at Oaklawn begins Friday, Jan. 14, and offers 56 days of racing. The traditional season finale will be the Grade 1 $1,000,000 Arkansas Derby Saturday, April 16.  Leading up to the Arkansas Derby are the $100,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Monday, Jan. 17; the Grade 3 $250,000 Southwest Stakes on Monday, Feb. 21; and the Grade 2 $300,000 Rebel Stakes on Saturday, March 19.

Oaklawn kicks off the 2011 season with a special four-day holiday weekend, highlighted by the $100,00 Smarty Jones Stakes on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, Jan. 17. Opening Day (Jan. 14) will feature the $75,000 Fifth Season, a    1 1/16-miles handicap race for 4-year-old and up that was moved to Opening Day from its traditional spot on the calendar toward the end of the season. 

The Fifth Season serves as the first race in Oaklawn’s handicap series for older male runners, which culminates with the Grade 2 $350,000 Oaklawn Handicap on the first day of the famed Racing Festival of the South Saturday, April 9. The Oaklawn Handicap had previously been a $500,000 race. The reduction to $350,000 is a sign of the times for older horses and allows Oaklawn to use those dollars elsewhere.

“We don’t like reducing the purse of any of our stakes races,” Longinotti said, “but this parallels what other tracks in the country have done in recent years. We thought that money could be better used elsewhere in the stakes program and in overnight purses.”

Begun in 1974, the Racing Festival continues Sunday, April 10, with the Grade 2 $300,000 Fantasy Stakes, which has become a key prep for the Kentucky Oaks in recent years, and continues with a graded stakes race every racing day thereafter. The Grade 3 $150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap will be held Thursday, April 14, followed by the Grade I $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap Friday, April 15, and the $1,000,000 Arkansas Derby, April 16. Two other $75,000 stakes races share the card with the Arkansas Derby – the Northern Spur for 3-year-olds and the Instant Racing for 3-year-old fillies, both at one mile.

The stakes schedule also includes two new events restricted to Arkansas Bred runners – The male and female divisions of the $50,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Stakes, both of which are to be run at 1 1/16-miles for 3-year-olds and up.

Stall applications for the 2011 Oaklawn Live Season are now available on Oaklawns’ website and must be turned in to the racing office by Thursday, Oct. 28. The Oaklawn stable area will open Monday, Nov. 15, and the track will open for training Monday, Nov. 22.