2026.08.25 Oaklawn Racing Update

Racing Updates
Compiled by Robert Yates

Contact: Chris Ho Vice President of Marketing

cho@oaklawn.com, 501-623-4411 ext. 4201

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026

An Oaklawn-raced horse won the Alabama Stakes (G1), but it wasn’t the one most expected.

Lightly raced My Gun’s Loaded, in her stakes debut, grabbed a narrow lead on the outside in upper stretch and edged Measure by a neck to win the prestigious $600,000 race for 3-year-old fillies Saturday at Saratoga.

The 1 ¼-mile Alabama was headlined by millionaire multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Counting Stars, the 1-4 favorite who was bidding for her third consecutive Grade 1 victory at Saratoga. Instead, My Gun’s Loaded ($8.74) stretched her winning streak to three for owner Douglas Scharbauer and trainer Chad Brown after engaging Counting Stars, the front-runner, turning for home. Counting Stars weakened late to finish third, 1 ¾ lengths behind My Gun’s Loaded. The winning time over a fast track was 2:04.87.

My Gun’s Loaded has made her last three starts at Saratoga after beginning her racing career with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen at Oaklawn, where she finished eighth in her Dec. 27 career debut.

My Gun’s Loaded resurfaced with a 4 ¼-length maiden special weight victory at 7 furlongs June 6 and captured a 1-mile first-level allowance by three lengths July 24. The Alabama was the first start around two turns for My Gun’s Loaded, who has been ridden in her last three races by Manny Franco.



My Gun’s Loaded, by super sire Gun Runner, has $460,500 in career earnings. She was purchased for $650,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Finish Lines

Heavily favored Oaklawn maiden special weight graduate Caldera ($2.60) broke his 1-mile track record Thursday at Colonial Downs in a 2 ¾-length allowance victory. Under Paco Lopez, Caldera covered the distance over a fast track in 1:32.37, bettering the previous mark (1:33.27) he set in a June 25 allowance victory. A 4-year-old son of Liam’s Map, Caldera races for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who ranked third in purse earnings ($2,320,287) at the 2025-2026 Oaklawn meeting after winning 9 of 22 starts, including five stakes. Caldera ran three times at the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting for the late Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Caldera, in addition to breaking his maiden at Oaklawn, finished second, beaten three-quarters of a length, in its $200,000 Bathhouse Row Stakes for 3-year-olds. … Heavily favored Oaklawn-raced Reagan’s Flame ($2.80) won the Seaway Stakes (G3) for fillies and mares, 3 and up, at 7 furlongs over an all-weather surface Saturday at Woodbine for Joseph. … Oaklawn-raced Original Sin and Full Serrano finished second and third, respectively, in the $1 million Pacific Classic (G1) for 3-year-olds and up at 1 ¼ miles Saturday at Del Mar. … Joseph Bealmear, Oaklawn’s leading apprentice jockey in 2023-2024, recorded his most lucrative career victory to date aboard Totally Justified ($15.24) in the $175,000 Ellis Park Turf Stakes for fillies and mares, 3 and up, at 1 1/16 miles Sunday at Ellis Park. Bealmear enters Tuesday with 88 career victories, including 42 at Oaklawn.