2025.05.06 Oaklawn Racing Updates

Racing Press Release
Compiled by Robert Yates

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Haulin Ice moved closer to breaking Nodouble’s 55-year-old record for career earnings by a registered Arkansas-bred with a victory in the $175,000 Vagrancy Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares at 6 ½ furlongs Sunday at Aqueduct.

Haulin Ice edged stablemate R Disaster by a neck to secure her first career graded stakes victory and push her lifetime earnings to $784,350. Nodouble, a two-time champion, completed his racing career in 1970 with $846,749 in earnings, still an all-time record for an accredited Arkansas-bred.

Haulin Ice was scratched from the $1 million Derby City Distaff Stakes (G1) at seven furlongs Saturday at Churchill Downs in favor of the Vagrancy, which was her third consecutive victory.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez rode Haulin Ice ($6) for Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who had a small string this season at Oaklawn and won seven of 17 starts. Three of the victories belonged to Haulin Ice, a speedy 4-year-old gray daughter of millionaire Oaklawn stakes winner Coal Front.

Haulin Ice became the leading accredited Arkansas-bred female money winner in history with a front-running five-length victory against open company in the $250,000 Matron Stakes for older fillies and mares March 29 at Oaklawn. Haulin Ice ($688,100) surpassed the now-retired Connie K, who earned $620,612 in a 28-race career from 2021-2024.

Haulin Ice, in her previous two Oaklawn starts, breezed to a six-length victory against overmatched state-breds in the $150,000 Downthedustyroad Breeders’ Stakes March 1 and beat open allowance company Dec. 22. All three victories were at six furlongs.

Haulin Ice has a 6-2-0 record in eight lifetime starts at Oaklawn, with earnings of $612,050.

The Vagrancy was the fourth career stakes victory and third in open company for Haulin Ice, who races for C2 Racing Stable (brothers Clint and Mark Cornett), Paul Braverman, Miller Racing (Myron Miller) and Timothy Pinch. Haulin Ice’s winning time over a fast track was 1:16.10.

Haulin Ice made her first five career starts at the 2023-2024 Oaklawn meeting for trainer Lindsay Schultz before being sold privately last spring and transferred to Joseph. In addition to the Vagrancy, Matron and Downthedustyroad, Haulin Ice won the $75,000 Azalea Stakes at seven furlongs July 13 at Gulfstream Park, which marked her second start for Joseph.

Overall, Haulin Ice has an 8-3-0 record from 14 lifetimes. Nodouble, the 1968 Arkansas Derby winner and the country’s champion older horse in 1969 and 1970, won 13 of 42 career starts.

Haulin Ice originally raced for her breeder, Arkansan Eugenia Thompson-Benight, and was named the 2024 Arkansas-bred Horse of the Year by the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ & Horsemen’s Association.

Finish Lines

There were 397 claims totaling $8,014,500 during the 62-day Oaklawn meeting that concluded Saturday, according to figures released by the track. … Jockey Chel-c Bailey, Oaklawn’s champion apprentice in 2021-2022, said she has been transitioning to the technology world by working remotely for a “branch of Microsoft,” adding her riding career is on hold because she wants to become a project manager. Bailey hasn’t ridden since Feb. 3 at Oaklawn. She worked as an exercise rider this season at Oaklawn for trainer Mac Robertson. Bailey has 66 career victories, including 41 at Oaklawn. Her first career victory came Feb. 28, 2020, at Oaklawn. … Trainer Norman McKnight, who makes Oaklawn and Woodbine his year-round circuit, has 991 career North American victories (United States and Canada), according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. McKnight has 87 career Oaklawn victories, the first coming in 2018. He won nine races this season at Oaklawn. Woodbine is Canada’s premier racing venue.