2025.12.17 Oaklawn Racing Updates

strong>Racing Updates
Compiled by Robert Yates

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025

Roll On Big Joe is eyeing three Oaklawn sprint stakes for older horses early next year, following his victory in Saturday’s $150,000 Ring the Bell Stakes, the gelding’s trainer, Bob Hess Jr., said Tuesday afternoon

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Roll On Big Joe, who was ridden by Julien Leparoux, punctuated a stellar 2025 with a front-running 1 ¼-length victory over favored Banishing in the six-furlong Ring the Bell. The winning time (1:09.54) was fastest of the young Oaklawn meeting.

Hess said Roll On Big Joe returned Sunday to his base at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky., to begin preparations for a 2026 campaign that could include a trio of six-furlong races at Oaklawn – $150,000 King Cotton Stakes Feb. 1, $250,000 Whitmore Stakes (G3) March 14 and the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) April 11.

“He came back great,” Hess said. “So right now, the plan is to shoot for all three of the sprint races. If he misses one, he’ll tell us. But the game plan is to look at all three.”

A multiple graded stakes winner, Roll On Big Joe ($6.40) was making his Oaklawn debut in the Ring the Bell. The gelding was cross-entered in last Saturday’s $250,000 Holiday Cheer Stakes at Turfway Park, a six-furlong race since postponed eight days because of harsh winter weather. Hess, however, had already opted to send Roll On Big Joe to Oaklawn, adding he arrived Dec. 9.

“I think I got ahead of myself a little bit, thinking don’t ship that far because we had him in Lexington, an hour away from Turfway,” Hess said. “The more I thought about it – night racing, cold weather – I just figured we would ship him earlier, so we got him up there on Tuesday.”

The Ring the Bell marked the first career Oaklawn stakes victory and third overall in Hot Springs for Hess, who races extensively in Southern California and Kentucky. Red Flag, a hard-knocking older sprinter, won two allowance races last season at Oaklawn for Hess.

Roll On Big Joe, a 5-year-old gray son of Prospective, has won nine of 22 lifetime starts and earned $751,925. But he’s six for nine this year, bankrolling $551,145.

Earlier this year, Roll On Big Joe won the Palos Verdes Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita, Kelly’s Landing Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs and the Bet On Sunshine Stakes at Churchill Downs. The Ring the Bell was his fourth career stakes victory.

“I think he loves Churchill,” Hess said. “I think Oaklawn’s surface is kind of similar, so we thought he might like it there and I think he loved it.”

Hess trains Roll On Big Joe for a partnership that includes Tim Cohen (Rancho Temescal). Roll On Big Joe was purchased for $90,000 at the 2022 OBS June Two-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale.

Skelly Retired

Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Skelly was retired following a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s $150,000 Ring the Bell Stakes, according to Frank Alosa, bloodstock agent for Red Lane Thoroughbreds, which campaigned the 6-year-old Practical Joke gelding with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

“He’s done so much for us,” Alosa said in a text message Monday morning. “Time to do the right thing for him. He’s ready.”

Noted for freakish early speed, Skelly compiled a 12-7-1 record from 25 lifetime starts and earned $2,018,963. The gelding was nearly unbeatable at Oaklawn, winning 10 of 13 starts, including six stakes, and bankrolling $1,312,963. All of Skelly’s Oaklawn victories were at six furlongs.

Skelly won Oaklawn’s Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) in 2023 and 2024 and its Lake Hamilton Stakes in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and King Cotton Stakes in 2024. Skelly captured the 2025 Lake Hamilton – his final career victory – by 10 ½ lengths. His winning time of 1:08.15 was just off the track-record 1:07.80.

Skelly was bidding for a record-tying seventh career Oaklawn stakes victory and record-extending 11th consecutive Oaklawn victory overall in the Ring the Bell. Instead, he suffered his fourth consecutive loss, setbacks that coincided with a recurrence of sluggish starts. Asmussen, Oaklawn’s all-time leading trainer, indicated earlier this month that the Ring the Bell was a make-or-break race for Skelly.

Alosa said Skelly was to head for Florida for some down time before a decision on the next chapter in his life.

“We’ll see if he wants another job or if he’ll just be a retiree,” Alosa said.

Red Lane Thoroughbreds (Chris Hicks) purchased the gelding for $250,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Selected Yearlings Showcase Sale in 2020.

Finish Lines

Racing resumes Friday at Oaklawn. The 10-race card begins at 12:30 p.m. and features a Classix Pick 6 carryover of $45,113.41 which begins in the fifth race … Through the first three days of Oaklawn’s 64-day split season, 18 claims totaled $382,500, according to figures released by the track. … Apprentice jockey Amir Mendoza recorded his first career North American victory aboard favored Bright Spark ($3) in Sunday’s sixth race, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. It was Mendoza’s 13th North American mount. Bright Spark, a half-brother to top 3-year-old Disco Time, was the 992nd career North American victory for trainer Genaro Garcia, according to Equibase. Trainer Kevin Martin won a seven-way shake, or blind draw, to claim Bright Spark out of his victory for $10,000. … Practicallyelusive, the Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders & Owners Ohio-bred champion 3-year-old filly of 2024, is entered in Friday’s eighth race, a $117,000 conditioned allowance sprint for fillies and mares. Practicallyelusive (8 for 13 overall) would mark the first Oaklawn starter for jockey Chelsey Keiser and trainer David Wolochuk, both based at Mahoning Valley in Ohio. … Joseph Bealmear will ride Indiana-bred star Corningstone in the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for fillies and mares, 3 and up, Dec. 26, trainer Kenny McPeek said Tuesday afternoon. Entries will be accepted and post positions drawn on Friday for the 1 1/16-mile Pippin, which Corningstone won last season.