2025.04.26 Oaklawn Racing Updates

Racing Press Release
Compiled by Robert Yates

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan completed major preparations for his comeback race with a five-furlong work in company moments after the track opened Saturday morning at Oaklawn for trainer Kenny McPeek.

Mystik Dan covered the distance in 1:01.40 under Francisco Arrieta, who is scheduled to ride the colt for the first time in the $200,000 Lake Ouachita Stakes for older horses at 1 1/16 miles May 3 at Oaklawn. The time ranked third of 12 published works at the distance.

Mystik Dan breezed over a fast track with stablemate Aruba Sunset, an unraced 3-year-old Arkansas-bred gelding. Aruba Sunset was credited with five furlongs in 1:02.

Mystik Dan, on the outside, and Aruba Sunset worked from the five-furlong pole to the regular finish line. Mystik Dan, after starting approximately 1 ½ lengths behind, recorded splits of :12.20 for his opening furlong, :24 for a quarter-mile, :37 for 3 furlongs and :49.20 for a half-mile. Mystik Dan galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.

“He’s doing good,” Arrieta said moments after breezing Mystik Dan, a 4-year-old son of Goldencents, for the second time. “I liked the way he worked. I was supposed to be behind, a length and a half or so, and two jumps later, I caught up with the other one.”

Mystik Dan is normally ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., but he has commitments May 3 at Churchill Downs, including the Kentucky Derby. Mystik Dan is seeking his first victory since the 2024 Kentucky Derby (run May 4). He hasn’t started since finishing ninth in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at 1 1/8 miles Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park.

“It’s amazing to have an opportunity to ride him,” Arrieta said.

Mystik Dan ran three times last season at Oaklawn, finishing fifth in the $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, first in the $800,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) and third in the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1).

Entries will be accepted and post positions drawn Sunday for the Lake Ouachita and the $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship Stakes May 3. The Arkansas Breeders’ Championship is for state-breds, 3 and up, at 1 1/16 miles.

The Great Race

A double Friday moved jockey Francisco Arrieta closer to the top of the Oaklawn standings with five days remaining in the 2024-2025 meeting.

Arrieta won the fourth race aboard Kitiara ($9.60) for trainer Kevin Martin and the ninth race aboard Indy Bay ($11.80) for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. The double pushed Arrieta’s meet total to 55, one less than leader Cristian Torres. Rafael Bejarano is third with 52 victories.

“I’m very happy,” Arrieta said Saturday morning. “We are all doing good. Bejarano’s still there, too. Everybody’s taking a piece of it.”

Torres is seeking his third consecutive Oaklawn riding title. Arrieta was Oaklawn’s co-leading rider in 2021-2022. Bejarano has never won an Oaklawn riding title.

Santana Nears Milestone

Eight-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. enters Saturday with 1,998 career North American victories (United States, Canada and Puerto Rico), according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization.

Santana is scheduled to ride three horses – all program favorites – Saturday at Oaklawn: Feeling Beachy (8-5) in the fourth race for trainer Norm Casse, Red State (5-2) in the ninth race for trainer Mike Maker and Miracle Mack (5-2) in the 11th and final race for Maker.

“I’m really blessed,” Santana said Thursday afternoon. “Hopefully, I can win my 2,000th at Oaklawn. That would be a really, really blessed moment. This is the track that opened the door for me, basically. I’m really excited. We’re getting close.”

Santana, 32, was Oaklawn’s leading rider in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021. He is the fourth-winningest rider in Oaklawn history with 793 victories, the first coming Jan. 21, 2011.

A native of Panama, Santana rode his first United States winner Sept. 21, 2009, at Delaware Park. Santana recorded his first career Grade 1 victory aboard Creator in the 2016 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn and was the regular rider of multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Mitole, the country’s champion male sprinter of 2019. Both horses were trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, who has been one of Santana’s biggest backers.