Oaklawn slates four $1 million stakes races

Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort announced Wednesday there will be four $1 million stakes races for the 2020 live meet.

The Rebel Stakes, Arkansas Derby, Oaklawn Handicap and Apple Blossom Handicap will all highlight the 2020 live meet, a news release said.

The richest Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks prep series in the country just got richer with significant bumps to the Southwest Stakes, Honeybee Stakes and Fantasy Stakes, the release said.

“We have so many great things happening now at Oaklawn and it’s reflected in our remarkable stakes program scheduled for the 2020 season,” Oaklawn President Louis Cella said in the release. “We are especially proud of the increases we made to our 3-year-old series

for horses on the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks trail.”

According to vice president of racing, Jed Doro, the 2019 meet helped in making these increases.

“We had a decent year last year,” he told The Sentinel-Record. “Everything was up from our racing handles to our gaming side. As we sat down and looked at what we could do this year, Mr. Cella thought it would be a great idea to increase these stakes races. A lot of our races actually saw increases, along with the addition of a new stakes race, the Temperance Hill.”

According to the release, Oaklawn’s rich 3-year-old program for colts and geldings begins opening day, Jan. 24, with the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes and culminates closing day, May

2, with the $300,000 Oaklawn Invitational, which is returning to the schedule following a successful debut in 2019. In between, are the $750,000 Southwest Stakes, the Presidents’ Day Monday feature, which has received a

$250,000 increase over 2019, the Rebel Stakes March 14 and the Arkansas Derby April 11.

Rebel Stakes weekend also will feature three other stakes, including the inaugural $125,000 Temperance Hill Stakes March

13 for 4-year-olds and up at 1.5 miles. The race is named in honor of the 1980 champion 3-yearold who won the Rebel, Arkansas Derby and Belmont Stakes, before returning the following year to win the Oaklawn Handicap, the release said.

Oaklawn has also boosted the purses of all three races in its 3-year-old fillies series in

2020 starting with a $25,000 increase to the $150,000 Martha Washington Stakes Feb. 1. Both the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes March 7 and the $600,000 Fantasy Stakes April 10 received

$100,000 increases.

The Racing Festival of the South kicks off April 10 with the Fantasy Stakes and is followed April 11 with the Arkansas Derby and three other stakes — the $200,000 Carousel Stakes, $250,000 Oaklawn Mile and $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. The Carousel for filly and mare sprinters received a

$50,000 increase and joins the Derby Day card for the first time.

For the first time in Oaklawn history, the Racing Festival of the South continues past the Arkansas Derby and will conclude the following Saturday, April 18, with the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap and $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap, the release said. The Oaklawn Handicap for 4-yearolds and up and the Apple Blossom for older fillies and mares both received an increase of

$250,000 over their 2019 purses. “My father conceived the idea for the Racing Festival of the South in 1974 and since that time it’s become one of the most prominent events on the national racing calendar,” Cella said in the release. “I think he would be thrilled to see the purses of the Oaklawn Handicap and Apple Blossom at $1 million each.”

Oaklawn’s 2020 stakes schedule features a total of 33 races worth $10,700,000, and 15 of those races received purse increases including four Arkansas-bred stakes, the release said.

The 57-day season begins Friday, Jan. 24, and continues through Saturday, May 2.

As for construction, both Doro and media relations manager Jennifer Hoyt said the project is making good progress.

Hoyt said Wednesday that to her knowledge, “everything is progressing as scheduled and the week of really nice weather helped a lot.”

Doro said much of the casino expansion’s framework is up and “all progressing in a good direction.”