Won first career graded stakes race in 2018 with Leofric
Regularly among Oaklawn’s top owners, Steve Landers won six races during the 2021 meet and had several stakes placing with Night Ops, who was third in the Fifth Season Stakes and Essex Handicap. Night Ops had won the Essex in 2020.
He’smyhoneybadger broke his maiden at Oaklawn in April and became stakes winner Oct. 23 when he won the Perryville Stakes at Keeneland.
Landers had dabbled in horse ownership in the past, but decided to get more involved in the racing business in 2014.
Another top horse for Landers was Leofric, who finished second in Oaklawn’s 2018 Razorback Handicap (G3) and then went on to give Landers his first graded stakes victory in the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes (G3) at Mountaineer. He later won the Fayette Stakes (G2) at Keeneland and captured the Clark Handicap (G1) at Churchill Downs in his final career start. The Clark represented Landers’ first career Grade 1 victory.
Steve Landers has teamed with trainer Brad Cox since the end of the 2015 Oaklawn meeting. Their successful partnership has also included Illussion Artist, winner of Oaklawn’s 2017 Carousel Stakes; Dazzling Gem, third in the Louisiana Derby (G2) and fourth in the Arkansas Derby (G1) in 2016; and Big Changes, who became a multiple stakes winner on turf in 2018 after breaking his maiden at the 2016 Oaklawn meeting.
Landers is a native Arkansan, who at the age of 17 started selling cars for Rebsamen Ford in Little Rock. That same year, he married his wife Sandy. Landers has been in the car business for more than 40 years and is currently the President of Landers Toyota in Little Rock and Hot Springs.
He was President of the South Central Region at United Auto Group, where he was responsible for all of UAG’s operations in Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Landers oversaw the acquisition of an additional 21 dealerships in his region for UAG before leaving in 2003 and purchasing his Toyota dealership.
Landers is a member of the Arkansas Racing Commission.