AT THE POST
DAY 1 of 57
FRIDAY’S ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE 20,000
FRIDAY’S TOTAL HANDLE $5,789,986 FRIDAY’S ON-TRACK HANDLE $1,030,218
FRIDAY’S OFF-TRACK HANDLE $4,759,768
TODAY’S POST TIME 1:05 p.m. ADMISSION Free for general admission; reserved seats, $4.50
PARKING $2 until 4 p.m. PROMOTIONS 50-cent corned beef sandwiches and 10-cent soft drinks TODAY’S SIMULCAST SCHEDULE Gulfstream Park, 11 a.m.; Laurel Park, 11:25 a.m.; Parx, 11:25 a.m.; Aqueduct, 11:30 a.m.; Tampa Bay, 11:45 a.m.; Fair Grounds, 12:30 p.m.; Southland (greyhounds), 12:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m.; Hawthorne, 12:55 p.m.; Santa Anita, 1:30 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:45 p.m.; Penn National, 5 p.m.; Turfway Park, 5:15 p.m.; Delta Downs, 5:25 p.m.; Daytona Beach (greyhounds), 6:25 p.m.; Derby Lane (greyhounds), 6:30 p.m.; Los Alamitos, 8 p.m.
FRIDAY’S STARS
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and trainer Ingrid Mason each won two races.
The two of them teamed to win the first race with
Arrival ($31.60,
$11.80, $5.20), who covered 1 and 1/16 miles in
1:46.92. Mason won the second race with Willow
Moon ($9.80,
$5.20, $3.80), who covered 6 furlongs in 1:14.45. Ortiz won the ninth race with Ring Leader ($26.00, $10.80, $7.20), who covered 6 furlongs in 1:12.70.
LARA RETURNS
Ezequiel Lara, who won 13 races in 2019 at Oaklawn and was the track’s leading apprentice jockey, has returned for 2020.
Lara, 23, rode most of the lengthy Indiana Grand meeting (April 16-Nov. 6) as a journeyman after losing his apprentice weight allowance early in the season.
“At first it was a little slow, but once we started winning a couple of races, everything just kind of took off,” Lara said. “I won almost 40 over there at Indiana Grand without my bug, so it was an awesome experience. Ever since then, slowly but surely picking up business.”
According to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization, Lara finished 2019 with 54 victories from 598 starts and earnings of $1,619,145 – all career highs since he began riding in 2017.
Lara said his agent, retired jockey Francisco Torres, and trainers Randy Morse and Randy Matthews have helped shape his young career. Torres rode 3,194 winners before injuries forced him to retire in late 2017. Morse, an Oaklawn regular, collected his 1,000th career victory Dec. 15 at Remington Park.
“The goal is to always be the best,” Lara said. “Go out there and show what you’re capable of. It’s a dream come true, honestly. I’ve had a lot of guys helping me out.”
Lara rode two races Friday and finished third with on Wild About You in the third race.
CANNON IS BACK
After riding the past two winters at Tampa Bay Downs, Fair Grounds and Turfway Park, jockey Declan Cannon has returned to Oaklawn this year.
Cannon rode 14 winners in his Oaklawn debut in the 2017 season and is coming off a career year in the United States when he had 66 winners overall and purse earnings of $2,594,953. Cannon, 32, has ridden in the U.S. since 2015 after stops in the United Arab Emirates, England, France and his native Ireland. Cannon said his return to Hot Springs was based on timing, specifically the birth of his son, Kian, on Jan. 2.
“I was waiting on the birth of my child, and there was really no meet you could go to,”
Cannon said. “It just made perfect sense, and I like
Oaklawn a lot. I’ve got plenty of barns here from Kentucky that I ride for and can pick up some others along the way.”
Cannon is the regular rider of Ascot Day, who is scheduled to make her 2020 debut in the American Beauty Stakes for older female sprinters Feb. 1. Ascot Day is trained by Dan Peitz. Cannon said he also has relationships at Oaklawn with two other Kentucky-based trainers, Chris Hartman and Will VanMeter. Hartman was Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2015.
Cannon had three starts Friday and finished second in the fifth race with Plumbago and third in the sixth race with Ahsad.
FLAT OUT SPEED PREPARES Unbeaten multiple stakes winner Flat Out Speed is scheduled to begin breezing early next month in advance of her 3-year-old debut that should come at the 2020 Oaklawn meeting, trainer Lynn Chleborad said.
Owned by Poindexter Thoroughbreds LLC (Allen Poindexter), Flat Out Speed won all three of her starts last year at Prairie Meadows, including the $79,430 Prairie Gold Lassie Stakes on July 26 and the $92,375 Iowa Sorority Stakes on Sept. 2 to complete her 2019 campaign.
“We turned her out for some time off after the last race, so now she’s just coming back around,” said Chleborad. “It will actually be another couple of months before she’s ready.”