A number of the winter season’s finest filth racing is coming to the Midwest with the beginning of Oaklawn Park’s 2025-26 meet on Friday, Dec. 12. Racing at Oaklawn in Sizzling Springs, Ark. boasts huge fields, good betting races for handicappers, a superb stakes program, and really robust purses all through its 64-raceday season that may proceed till Might 2.
The massive variations between this yr’s Oaklawn season and final yr’s can be a four-day-a-week racing schedule for the February by April portion of the meet, which can be termed the Basic Meet. The opening 4 weeks of motion from Dec. 12-Jan. 4 can be referred to as the Vacation Meet. The monitor calendar takes a brand new three-week hiatus between the 2 meets that may embody a lot of the month of January earlier than the season resumes on Jan. 30.
The Oaklawn Park stakes schedule can be largely unchanged from final yr regardless of the shortage of racing all through a lot of January. The headline occasion of the season would be the $1.5 million, Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on March 28. Different stakes races for Kentucky Derby hopefuls may even have seven-figure purses, together with the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes on Jan. 31 and the Grade 2, $1 million Insurgent Stakes on March 1.
Get to know Oaklawn Park
For horseplayers, the Oaklawn Park meet is about way more than simply stakes races due to wonderful day-to-day racing and wagering. The filth racing contested all through the season at Oaklawn is on par with the most effective filth racing being carried out anyplace presently of yr. Due to this fact, Oaklawn can be a focus for a lot of handicappers and bettors for the winter racing season till early spring.
Oaklawn is a dust racing-only meet with no turf course. The Oaklawn filth monitor is a one-mile oval, and the overwhelming majority of its races can be run at three distances – six furlongs, one mile, and 1 1/16 miles. There’s an alternate end line on the sixteenth pole which accommodates one-mile races with a good run-up into the primary flip.
Prime Oaklawn Jockeys
Oaklawn Park will characteristic a brand new look jock’s room on the 2025-26 season with each Luis Saez and Joel Rosario dedicated to journey this yr’s meet. Saez ranks because the nation’s fourth-leading jockey by way of purses received in 2025 and Rosario is a Corridor of Famer and former Eclipse Award winner who ranks tenth on the record of jockey purse earnings for 2025. Each jockeys could have an inevitable impression at or close to the highest of the leaderboard at Oaklawn Park this season.
There additionally can be loads of acquainted faces available within the Oaklawn jock’s room this season. Ricardo Santana Jr., who was the eight-time main rider at Oaklawn with meet titles from 2013-’18, and 2020-’21, will as soon as once more be again in Sizzling Springs for the winter after having fun with an excellent latter half of 2025 racing at Saratoga Race Course and Aqueduct. Santana ranked because the seventh-leading rider at Oaklawn final yr with 36 wins from 291 mounts for 12%. He had lengthy fashioned a potent jockey-trainer mixture with Steve Asmussen at Oaklawn, however the pair has teamed up on fewer winners at Oaklawn of late with Keith Asmussen now taking numerous the mounts that used to go to Santana. Keith Asmussen has been sidelined with a pelvic fracture sustained in a spill Nov. 8 at Churchill Downs. Asmussen completed final yr’s Oaklawn meet with 31 wins (11%), which was good for eighth within the standings, which was simply forward of Erik Asmussen, who received 27 races final yr 10%.
There was a altering of the guard atop the Oaklawn jockey standings the final couple of years with Santana not atop the record. The defending main rider at Oaklawn from the 2024-’25 meet is Francisco Arrieta who received final yr’s driving title with 65 wins from 367 mounts for 18% which was narrowly sufficient to edge Cristian Torres (62 wins, 15%) for the highest spot. Torres had been the two-time Oaklawn main rider each two and three seasons in the past when he scored 82 wins (18%) in 2023-’24 and 100 wins (21%) on the 2022-’23 meet.
Together with Saez, Rosario, Torres, Arrieta, Santana, and the Asmussens, another jockeys who might compete for high 10 finishes within the standings embody longtime Oaklawn stalwart Ramon Vazquez who completed fifth in final yr’s standings with 40 wins (11%) after ending seventh with 39 wins (12%) two years in the past. Rafael Bejarano was third final yr with 54 wins (19%), and Tyler Bacon was fourth final yr with 49 winners 13%. Manny Esquivel received 37 races final yr (12%) which was good for sixth within the standings.
The established Oaklawn riders will face extra competitors from a number of different completed jockeys who plan on shifting their tack to Oaklawn this season together with Jaime Torres, Reylu Gutierrez, Evin Roman, and Assael Espinoza to call a couple of.
Oaklawn Park Prime Trainers
Steve Asmussen is now the 14-time main coach at Oaklawn Park coming off his meet title in 2024-’25 when he received 46 races. He begins the meet sitting on 993 profession wins at Oaklawn and will surpass the 1,000-win milestone through the “Vacation” portion of the meet.
Asmussen is the favourite to stroll away with one other Oaklawn title this yr, however for handicappers, it must be famous that Asmussen burned numerous bettors’ cash ultimately yr’s meet. He began precisely 500 horses final season, that means that his 46 winners solely resulted in a win proportion of 9% although he despatched out tons of favorites. Two years in the past, Asmussen set the Oaklawn Park all-time single-season mark for purse earnings with $6.68 million by scoring 71 wins from 461 starters for 15%. Which model of the Asmussen barn will we see at Oaklawn Park this season?
Coach Ron Moquett loved maybe his finest Oaklawn season ever final yr when he completed second within the coach’s standings with 37 winners from 237 starters for 16%. That marked a big enchancment on the meet for the Moquett steady after he completed sixth within the win standings with 22 winners two years in the past and fifth within the standings three years in the past with 19 wins. Ken McPeek had one other huge season at Oaklawn final yr because the third-leading coach with 28 wins (18%) after ending because the second-leading coach with 30 wins (19%) two years in the past.
Brad Cox is an element at Oaklawn Park, simply as he’s at most main meets all year long. He doesn’t begin sufficient horses at Oaklawn to compete for the meet title, however he’s usually the win-percentage king among the many top-tier of trainers. Final yr, Cox received 19 races from 92 starters for 21%. He went 26-for-102 for 25% two years in the past and had equally excessive win percentages within the seasons prior relationship again to the 2021 meet. Cox yearly enjoys quick begins within the early a part of the Oaklawn meet and his horses must be very harmful whenever you see them flip up within the entries, specifically from Dec. 12-Jan. 4.
Coach Mark Casse is predicted to have an elevated presence at Oaklawn this yr, significantly on the “Basic” meet. Casse has been allotted 25 stalls and plans to assault Oaklawn’s profitable stakes schedule together with his steady’s “huge weapons” on the filth, together with Sandman, Nitrogen, La Cara, and aspiring soon-to-be 3-year-old star Ewing. Additionally, it’s essential to at all times preserve tabs on Norm Casse on the Oaklawn meet. He received with 10 of 55 starters for 18% final yr after going 11-for-52 (21%) two years in the past and 13-for-38 (34%) three years in the past.
Extra trainers coming off sensational meets final season at Oaklawn Park that bettors would possibly need to concentrate on this yr embody Chris Hartman, who completed fourth final yr with 26 wins (18%) after ending third with 28 wins (19%) in 2023-’24. Coach Greg Compton made a giant transfer within the standings final yr to win 21 wins for 19%. Cipriano Contreras scored 19 wins from 101 starters final yr after a excessive proportion 22-for-84 report in 2023-’24. One other up-and-comer final yr was Abel Ramirez-Rodriguez who turned heads with 19 wins from 82 starters for 23%.
On the opposite aspect of the coin, some trainers who might want to enhance off disappointing Oaklawn information final yr embody Robert Cline (2-for-89 [2%] and 4-for-120 [3%] two years in the past), Scott Becker (2-for-40, 5%), Aaron Shorter (2-for-47, 4%), Danele Durham (1-for-35, 3%), and Michael Rone (1-for-43, 2%).
Handicapping at Oaklawn Park
To get a handicapping leg up on the meet, let’s begin by some post-position and working model preferences on the Oaklawn monitor format 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. To the bare eye there has generally been a discernable exterior stream to lots of Oaklawn’s races the previous 5 years or in order 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 choose if the monitor is favoring exterior paths.
Oaklawn Dash Successful Profiles
From a statistical standpoint, Oaklawn’s exterior stream is mirrored within the numbers. Inside posts, as soon as a cornerstone of Oaklawn handicapping, are not any benefit, particularly in sprints.
Final yr’s 2024-’25 Oaklawn meet hosted a complete of 364 dash races, largely at six furlongs, and people races had a very good common area dimension of 9.54 horses per race. One of the best put up positions statistically in these races had been truly the surface posts 7 and outward. Horses from the surface posts received 40% of the sprints (146 wins in 364 races), whereas inside posts 1-3 received 30% of the sprints and center posts 4-6 received 30%.
In terms of most popular working kinds in sprints, early pace is useful. Speedsters on or near the lead who received 40% of the sprints, which was nearly the identical successful proportion as stalkers, who received 38% of the sprints. The one actual drawback performed towards closers coming from 4 or extra lengths off the tempo, who received solely 22% of the sprints within the final yr.
Most well-liked Route Posts and Working Kinds
For Oaklawn routes, we are going to think about the widespread distances of 1 mile and 1 1/16 miles. On the distance of 1 1/16 miles in a pattern of 153 races run on the 2024-’25 meet, put up positions and working kinds had been primarily truthful to inside, center, and outdoors posts and for horses with any of the assorted working kinds. Handicappers usually rapidly low cost the possibilities exterior posts in Oaklawn routes, and whereas win percentages over the past six years general do drop off the farther out you go within the beginning gate, the put up place stats from the final yr weren’t dramatic. Horses from posts 1-3 received 60 of the races at 1 1/16 miles, horses from center posts 4-6 received 51, and horses breaking from posts 7 and outward received 42 occasions.
Exterior put up positions on the distance of 1 mile had been a bit extra of a drawback final season. From a pattern of 86 one-mile races run ultimately yr’s meet, horses from posts 1-3 received 40% of the races, horses from center posts 4-6 received 36% of the races, and outdoors horses from posts 7 and outward received 24% of the races. One-mile races at Oaklawn make the most of an alternate end line creating a brief stretch run to the end. This leads to higher outcomes for speedsters than for closers. Horses racing on or near the lead at a mile received 36 of the 86 races (42%). Stalkers received 32 of the 86 races (37%), and closers received 18 of the 86 races (21%), that means that closers received solely half as many mile races because the front-runners.
There are a number of months of nice racing forward at Oaklawn Park. Issue Oaklawn’s prevailing biases and high human connections into your handicapping, and you’ll have a giant benefit over your fellow horseplayers all season lengthy. Better of luck and revel in racing at Oaklawn Park.
