Alex & Joann Lieblong

Owner

Residence: Conway, Ark.

Have won Grade I races with Telling, The Big Beast, Embellish the Lace and Wicked Whisper

• Regularly among Oaklawn's leading owners, the Lieblongs finished the 2021 season with 10 victories, which tied them for third. Among those wins was the $200,000 Purple Martin Stakes with Abrogate, who returns to Oaklawn in today’s sixth race.

• The Lieblongs have enjoyed success in recent years with Grade 1 winner Wicked Whisper, Oaklawn stakes winner Spring Included, graded stakes winners High Dollar Woman and 2015 Alabama Stakes (G1) winner Embellish the Lace. In 2014, The Big Beast, who began the year at Oaklawn, won the King’s Bishop (G1) at Saratoga. He continued to race at the highest level with a couple of seconds against Grade 1 company and retired at the end of 2015. He now stands at Ocala Stud.

• Other top horses have been multiple Grade 1 winner Telling and 2010 Oaklawn Handicap winner Duke of Mischief, owned in partnership with trainer David Fawkes and Marilyn McMaster, as well as graded stakes-placed For Greater Glory and Marathon Lady.

• Central Arkansas natives, the Lieblongs live on an 80-acre farm where they previously raised cattle. Alex heads his own investment firm in Little Rock, Ark., and also has bank, gas and oil holdings.

• The husband-wife team first ventured into racing as partners with longtime Arkansas owners Patricia and Gus “Buddy” Blass in the early 1990s.

• Alex is chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission.

• The Lieblongs’ blue and white silks honor the school colors of their alma mater, Conway (Ark.) High School.

Photo of Alex & Joann Lieblong