2025.05.22 Oaklawn Racing Update

Racing Press Release
Compiled by Robert Yates

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Daniel Alonse’s Skippylongstocking, winner of the 2024 $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap (G2) and third-place finisher in this year’s edition, is among the seven runners entered in Monday’s $200,000 Hollywood Gold Cup (G2) at Santa Anita.

To be contested at the classic distance of 1 ¼-miles, the Hollywood Gold Cup is one of three graded stakes races on the Memorial Day card at Santa Anita and will be run as the eighth race at 6:30 p.m., CDT. The card also includes a pair of Grade 1 turf races for 3-year-olds and up – the $300,00 Shoemaker Mile and $300,000 Gamely for fillies and mares. Also entered in the Gold Cup is Oaklawn-raced Tarantino.

Oaklawn allowance winner and Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) third-place finisher Where’s My Ring is cross-entered in Monday’s Gamely (G1) and in Sunday’s $200,000 Santa Margarita (G2). The Santa Margarita goes as the third race on Sunday’s Santa Anita’s card at with an expected post time of 4:00 p.m. CDT.

Saturday’s Santa Anita card features five stakes races for California-bred runners headlined by the $125,000 Snow Chief for 3-year-olds at nine furlongs.

Elsewhere this holiday weekend, Churchill Downs offers Saturday’s $250,000 Keertana Stakes for filly and mare turf routers and Monday’s special Memorial Day card features the $250,000 Winning Colors (G3), a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares. Kaleem Shah’s Benedetta, winner of Oaklawn’s $150,000 American Beauty Stakes in February, is one of nine entered in the Winning Colors, which will be run as the eighth race Monday at 3:22 p.m.

Finish Lines

Arkansas-bred star Navy Seal, a three-time winner this season at Oaklawn, is entered in the six-furlong $50,000 Work All Week Handicap Sunday at Hawthorne. The race also drew eight-time Oaklawn winner Devil’s Tower. … Oaklawn-raced Air Combat bids for his fifth consecutive victory in the Gulfstream Park’s $75,000 Big Drama Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at seven furlongs Saturday. … Oaklawn maiden special weight graduate Gould’s Gold ($9) set a 1 1/8-mile track record in last Saturday’s 10th race at Churchill Downs, a conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds and up. Gould’s Gold ran the distance over a fast track in 1:47.26, eclipsing the previous record (1:47.28), set by Victory Gallop in the 1999 Stephen Foster Handicap (G2). Victory Gallop won Oaklawn’s Arkansas Derby (G2) and Rebel Stakes (G3) in 1998 and was the country’s champion older male in 1999. Gould’s Gould, 4, races for Kenny McPeek, Oaklawn’s third-leading trainer this season, and a partnership that includes Arkansans Lance Gasaway and Brent and Sharilyn Gasaway (4 G Racing). Gasaway and 4 G, in partnership, also campaign 2024 Kentucky Derby and Oaklawn Southwest winner Mystik Dan and his 3-year-old half-sister Yes Ma’am, who broke her maiden May 3 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Yes Ma’am made her first four career starts at the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting. … Jockey Kylee Jordan, who missed the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting following shoulder surgery in December, made her comeback last Saturday at Prairie Meadows … Instant Replay bids for his second consecutive stakes victory in the $300,000 Texas Derby for 3-year-olds Monday at Lone Star Park. Instant Replay exits a three-quarter length victory in Oaklawn’s $200,000 Bathhouse Row Stakes.at Oaklawn … In other Lone Star races Monday, Oaklawn stakes winners Kavod and Ryvit are entered in the $100,000 Speightstown Sprint, Rose Palace and Mischievous Gal are entered in the $100,000 Memorial Day Sprint; and the $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile (G3) for 3-year-olds and up features numerous Oaklawn-raced runners, including New York-bred star The Wine Steward, the 7-2 second choice in the program.