Barn Notes 11/28/25
Compiled by Robert Yates
A large influx of newcomers will make the Oaklawn jockeys’ room more crowded when its 64-day split season begins Dec. 12.
The most notable 2025-2026 addition is the nationally prominent Luis Saez, who will be riding regularly at Oaklawn for the first time after previously wintering in south Florida. Saez is now based at Churchill Downs, which ends its fall meeting Sunday.
“We actually talked about going last year and then decided against it,” Saez’s agent, Kiaran McLaughlin, said Tuesday afternoon. “But Luis and I talked about going again this year and giving it a try from Dec. 12 until Jan. 4. And if things are going well, we plan on coming back (Jan. 30), when it starts up again. We’re excited about it. It’s great racing and purses. We want to give it a try.”
Oaklawn has dramatically altered its racing calendar in 2025-2026, greatly reducing its January footprint and incorporating four-day race weeks by adding Thursdays.
Oaklawn’s racing calendar evolved into mostly three-day race weeks (Friday-Sunday) after the track extended its season into May in 2019 and began opening in December in 2021.
Oaklawn’s 2025-2026 calendar features a 13-day Holiday racing season (Dec. 12-Jan. 4) and a 51-day Classic racing season (Jan. 30-May 2).
Oaklawn officials said last spring the move was made to escape potential harsh winter weather in January and, hopefully, boost the jockey colony with four-day racing weeks (Thursday-Sunday) that begin in earnest in February.
The addition of Saez, 33, is a home run for Oaklawn.
A native of Panama, Saez owns riding titles in New York, Florida and Kentucky and amassed more than 3,800 victories and $250 million in purse earnings during a North American career that began in 2009.
Saez was the regular rider of two-time Eclipse Award winner Essential Quality, who won eight of 10 career starts for trainer Brad Cox, including Oaklawn’s $750,000 G3-Southwest Stakes and the G1-Belmont Stakes and G1-Travers Stakes in 2021. Saez won the Belmont Stakes – the third leg of the Triple Crown – again in 2024 aboard Dornoch.
In 2021 Saez also won Oaklawn’s $600,000 G3-Razorback Handicap and the $12 million G1-Dubai World Cup aboard Mystic Guide. Saez is a two-time winner of the G1-Kentucky Oaks, which is the country’s biggest prize for 3-year-old fillies. Saez won the race in 2022 aboard multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Secret Oath and again this year aboard Good Cheer for Cox.
Cox is an Oaklawn regular, but McLaughlin said Saez won’t be tied to one barn.
“Luckily, most of the top trainers like Luis and I get along with most of them, also,” McLaughlin said. “I know a lot of them from Kentucky over the years, so we will be riding for everybody and that’s a good thing.”
Saez has 11 career Oaklawn victories, including six stakes. His first Oaklawn victory was aboard champion Will Take Charge in the $600,000 G2-Oaklawn Handicap in 2014. Saez’s 11th Oaklawn victory was aboard Princess Aliyah in last April’s $200,000 Valley of the Vapors Stakes.
Secret Oath, Will Take Charge and Princess Aliyah were all trained by the late Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.
McLaughlin, before launching a successful training career, was an assistant under Lukas, who eventually made Oaklawn his longtime winter and early spring base. Lukas, 89, died June 28.
“He was very influential and a very important person to me and my whole family,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll miss him and wish he was there this winter. He was an icon.”
Other jockeys scheduled to ride regularly at Oaklawn for the first time in 2025-2026 include Jaime Torres, Evin Roman, Reylu Gutierrez, Eswan Flores, Assael Espinoza, Johan Rosado, Alexis Centeno, Israel Hernandez and Ronnie Huckaby.
Torres won the G1-Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, in 2024 aboard Seize the Grey. Another Lukas trainee, Seize the Grey opened 2024 with an allowance victory at Oaklawn.
Roman won an Eclipse Award in 2017 as North America’s outstanding apprentice jockey and is approaching 1,000 career North American victories.
Espinoza, then based in northern California, won a career-high 155 races in 2023 to rank 34th in North America, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Espinoza owns multiple riding titles at the now-defunct Golden Gate Fields.
Huckaby was champion apprentice jockey this year at Prairie Meadows and said he has been getting horses at Oaklawn since the track opened for training in late October.
Oaklawn will again offer the country’s highest purses this winter, with a projected $900,000-plus per-day average in 2025-2026.
Statistics from the Holiday and Classic racing seasons will be combined to determine Oaklawn’s 2025-2026 human and equine champions, according to Jason Milligan, Oaklawn’s director of racing.
Back to Work
Arkansas Derby winner Sandman returned to the worktab Wednesday, covering three furlongs in :37.60 over a fast track. Unraced since late August, Sandman is now based at trainer Mark Casse’s Florida training center. Casse said earlier this month that he could see Sandman “possibly heading to Oaklawn within the next, probably, 30 days.” Casse has 25 stalls at Oaklawn, which launches its 64-day split season Dec. 12.
Casse said the major spring objective for Sandman is the $1.25 million G2-Oaklawn Handicap for older horses at 1 1/8 miles April 18. Oaklawn’s series of major two-turn stakes races for older horses begins with the $500,000 G3-Razorback Handicap at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 28.
Sandman started four times last season at Oaklawn, winning an allowance race in his final start at 2 and the $1.5 million G1-Arkansas Derby (G1). Sandman also finished second in the $1 million G3-Southwest Stakes and third in the $1.25 million G2- Rebel Stakes (G2).
Sandman earned $1,168,000 at the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting, a single-season Oaklawn record.
Finish Lines
Entries will be accepted and post positions drawn Friday, Dec. 5 for Oaklawn’s Dec. 12 opening-day program. The 64-day split season ends May 2. Oaklawn’s Holiday racing season is Dec. 12-Jan. 4. The Classic racing season is Jan. 30 - May 2. … Nominations close Monday for Oaklawn’s first three stakes races in 2025-2026. The $150,000 Advent for 2-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs is Dec. 12, $150,000 Ring the Bell for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs is Dec. 13 and the $135,000 Astral Spa Overnight for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs is Dec. 14. An Oaklawn record 62 stakes races are scheduled to be run in 2025-2026. … Sleepingonfreedom, a Nov. 22 starter-allowance winner at Churchill Downs, is being pointed to the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds Jan. 3 at Oaklawn, trainer Kenny McPeek said. The 1 1/16-mile Smarty Jones is Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby qualifying races. … Millionaire multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Skelly worked a half-mile in :51.40 Tuesday morning for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. The track was muddy. … El Que Sabe, a Group 1 winner in his native Argentina, worked three furlongs in :37.60 Wednesday morning for trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs. The track was fast. … Jockey Ramon Vazquez, an Oaklawn regular, won three stakes races Tuesday at Zia Park.
