2025.04.24 Oaklawn Racing Updates

Racing Press Release
Compiled by Robert Yates

Bigger isn’t always better.

Nancy Knott trains one horse, but that horse is Arkansas-bred star Navy Seal, who tries to punctuate a banner 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting in Friday’s eighth race, a $131,000 open allowance for older horses at six furlongs.

Navy Seal has already bankrolled $170,000 this season at Oaklawn after compiling a 2-1-1 record in four starts. The Kodak moment occurred March 2 when he delivered Knott’s first career stakes victory in the $150,000 Nodouble Breeders’ for state-bred sprinters.

“We’re just so proud of him, and he just seems proud of himself,” Knott said.

The Nodouble was also the first career stakes victory for Navy Seal, who had been 0 for 6 in black-type events. He finished fourth in the 2024 Nodouble.

Paired for the first time with jockey Julien Leparoux, Navy Seal finished a close third in the Feb. 7 allowance prep for the Nodouble. Navy Seal then surged late to capture the Nodouble by 1 1 ¼ lengths under Leparoux, a two-time Eclipse Award winner.

Knott said Leparoux’s patience early was the difference in the six-furlong race.

“I was like: ‘Listen to your horse and then wait as long as you can and he’ll finish,’” Knott said of her instructions. “And that’s exactly what he did. It was beautiful. Navy’s the same horse he’s always been. It’s just matter of somebody listening and getting the best out of him.”

Nobody is more in tune with Navy Seal than Knott, 59, a former jockey who gallops, breezes, grooms and grazes the 7-year-old gelded son of champion Midshipman. Knott also has an equine massage and body-work business.

“Really, I only have time for one horse,” Knott said.

Purchased for $80,000 at the 2020 OBS March Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training, Navy Seal races for Chicago-based KEM Stables. Overall, Navy Seal has a 7-7-7 record from 42 lifetime starts and earnings of $540,704. The gelding’s last six victories have come for Knott, including a Feb. 5, 2023, state-bred allowance sprint. It marked Knott’s first training victory at Oaklawn since Feb. 3, 1995, when horses were running under her maiden name, Steenhuis. Knott is married to Oaklawn starter William “Blue” Knott.

Navy Seal exits a closing second to the talented Disco Ball in an open allowance sprint March 29 at Oaklawn. Navy Seal’s best work has come at Oaklawn, where he has four victories and $436,354 in earnings. Navy Seal began his racing career with trainer Tom Swearingen.

Overhead, in this case, is an obvious perk for Nancy Knott. The downside? Although Navy Seal is in razor-sharp form, his advanced age has Knott already looking toward a possible second career for the gelding.

“I think about it a lot, because he’s a very high-strung horse,” Knott said. “I think he’d be an incredible jumper. But to get to go to a show, sounds really set him off and he doesn’t like getting his ears plugged up or anything. If it’s really loud, I bring him up in a hood and earmuffs. He’s super sensitive. He also still thinks he’s a colt, so he’s very aggressive. Every single horse that passes in front of his stall, he dives for them and kicks out.

“I think about his future a lot after racing – what will make him happy, too, and that he’ll be able to be calm. I really don’t know what’s going to happen, but I hope I don’t have to make that decision any time soon.”

Leparoux has the return call on Navy Seal, who is 6-1 on the morning line for Friday’s eighth race. Probable post time is 4:16 p.m. (Central).

Navy Seal is the fourth Oaklawn stakes winner (all in Arkansas-bred company) out of Copperelle, following Weast Hill, Usual Suspect and Lochmoor. Navy Seal was bred by Arkansan Starsky Weast, who also bred and raced Weast Hill and Usual Suspect. Weast sold Copperelle, a now-18-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality, to prominent Arkansas breeder Bill McDowell in 2019.

McDowell said Copperelle had a colt late last month by 2021 Arkansas Derby runner-up Caddo River and was bred back to Grade 1 winner The Big Beast. Copperelle has a yearling by 2021 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide that “is as good as she’s ever had,” McDowell said in a text message.

McDowell said he hopes to sell the Mystic Guide colt at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Finish Lines

Owner John Ed Anthony entered Thursday with 299 career Oaklawn victories. Anthony (Loblolly Stable/Shortleaf Stable) is the winningest owner in Oaklawn history. … Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen entered Thursday with a record 990 career Oaklawn victories. … Eight-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. entered Thursday with 1,997 career North American victories (United States, Canada and Puerto Rico), according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Santana is the fourth-winningest rider in Oaklawn history with 792 victories. … Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner G W’s Girl will likely make her next start in the $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes (G3) May 16 at Pimlico, trainer Greg Compton said. The Miss Preakness is for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs. G W’s Girl won Oaklawn’s $150,000 Mockingbird Stakes and $150,000 Dixie Belle Stakes earlier this year. … Jockey Walter De La Cruz entered Thursday with 196 career Oaklawn victories. … Trainer Shea Stuart saddled two winners last Saturday to match his single-day Oaklawn high. Stuart won the fourth race, a $130,000 allowance for older horses at 1 1/16 miles, with Jokestar ($36.20) and the 12th and final race, a $130,000 Arkansas-bred allowance sprint, with favored Al’s Romeo ($7.40). Jokestar, who ran in all three legs of last year’s Canadian Triple Crown, represented the first Oaklawn victory since 2016 for prominent Minnesota owners Al and Bill Ulwelling. It was the third career Oaklawn double for Stuart.