AT THE POST
OPENING DAY Friday
POST TIMES Friday and May 4, 12:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Feb. 3 and Feb. 18, 1 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, 1:30 p.m.
RACING CALENDAR Friday-Sunday the first two weeks; Thursday-Sunday starting Feb. 7. Oaklawn will race Feb. 18 on Presidents Day. No racing on April 21 for Easter. The final week of the season will be May 2-4.
KENTUCKY DERBY PREP RACES
Smarty Jones Stakes on Friday; Southwest Stakes on Feb. 18; Rebel Stakes on March 16; Arkansas Derby on April 13. Points for the Smarty Jones Stakes and Southwest Stakes will be awarded on a 10-4-2-1 basis. Points for the Rebel Stakes will be awarded on a 50-2010-5 basis. Points for the Arkansas Derby will be awarded on a 100-4020-10 basis.
ADMISSION Free
PARKING $2 in north, south and west lots
PROMOTIONS 50-cent corned beef sandwiches and 10-cent soft drinks on Saturday. Free baseball cap while supplies last Feb. 18. Boat and truck giveaway April 6 (registration begins March 23 and guests must be present April 6). Progressive cash giveaway April 14 (registration begins April 12, and guests must be present to win.)
MORALES LOOKS FOR ECLIPSE
Edgar Morales isn’t riding Friday at Oaklawn, but the jockey has a good excuse for missing the first day of the meet. Morales will attend the 48th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony tonight at Gulfstream Park in suburban Miami.
Morales, 20, is among three finalists for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2018. He was Oaklawn’s leading apprentice last year with 17 victories, the most for an apprentice in Hot Springs since 2010.
Morales later contended for riding titles at three Kentucky venues — Ellis Park, Keeneland and Churchill Downs — before losing his apprentice weight allowance Nov. 17.
Morales had more than $3 million in purse earnings last year to lead all apprentice riders.
“We were ahead in earnings and a guy at the Daily Racing Form told me 90 percent of the time whoever is ahead on money, they give it to him,” Morales’ agent, Julio Espinoza, said.
Other finalists are Reylu Gutierrez and Weston Hamilton. The Mid-Atlantic-based Hamilton also had more than $3 million in purse earnings last year.
TOGETHER AGAIN
Jockey Terry Thompson and trainer Larry Jones, once a potent combination at Oaklawn, are scheduled to team up again in Friday’s $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds with Super Steed.
Gabriel Saez rode Super Steed in his first three career starts, but Jones tapped Thompson for the 1-mile Smarty Jones. Thompson regularly has breezed Super Steed since he arrived in Hot Springs late last year. Thompson and Jones combined for 59 Oaklawn victories, including six stakes, from 2001-2011, but they have had only a handful of chances together in recent years. He is named on two other horses for Jones on opening day.
“We’ve had awfully good luck over the years,” said Thompson, Oaklawn’s leading jockey in 2009 and 2010. “We always seem to click. Larry, give him credit, he gave me the opportunity to get on some more good horses again.”
— Information for this report was contributed by Oaklawn media
department