AT THE POST
DAY 32 of 57
TODAY’S SIMULCAST SCHEDULE Gulfstream Park, 12:15 p.m.; Fair Grounds, 12:30 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:45 p.m.; Penn National, 5:05 p.m.; Turfway Park, 5:15 p.m.; Charles Town, 6 p.m.; Daytona Beach (greyhounds), 6:25 p.m.
SANTANA ON TOP
Ricardo Santana Jr. rode four winners Sunday, including the 500th in his career for trainer Steve Asmussen, to regain the lead in the Oaklawn jockey standings.
Santana, Oaklawn’s leading rider the past six years, reached the milestone with Asmussen when favored
Bayerd won the ninth race by a head. Santana also won two other races on the card for Asmussen — the second race with favored Street
Trust and the fourth race with favored
One Man Party. He won the sixth race with Mylady Curlin for trainer Brad Cox.
Santana holds a 37-35 lead over David Cohen in the leading jockey race. Cohen didn’t race Sunday because he was serving the first day of a two-day suspension for an incident shortly after the start of the seventh race Feb. 14. Cohen is scheduled to resume racing Friday.
UNDER CONSIDERATION
Tranier Brad Cox said Exclamation Point, the 4-year-old half-brother of 2017 Arkansas Derby winner Classic Empire, is being considered for two stakes races at Oaklawn after a victory earlier this month at Fair Grounds.
Based this winter at Oaklawn, Exclamation Point held off Hawaakom — last year’s Razorback Handicap winner — by a head in a March 5 allowance race at 1 1/16 miles. Tenfold, who broke his maiden last year at Oaklawn before winning the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga and finishing third in the Preakness Stakes, was beaten by three-quarters of a length and finished fourth.
Cox said it was “by far” the best race Exclamation Point has run in his fiverace career.
“He stepped up and fought off some seasoned horses,” Cox said. “It was a big step for him. We’ll bring him back up here at some point.”
Cox said Exclamation Point is under consideration for the $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes on April 14 and the inaugural $250,000 Oaklawn Mile on May 3. The chestnut son of Concord Point has never run in a stakes race.