2025.09.23 Oaklawn Racing Updates

Racing Updates
Compiled by Robert Yates

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Haulin Ice surpassed Nodouble as the leading accredited Arkansas-bred career money winner with a runaway victory in the $200,000 Princess Rooney Invitational (G3) for female sprinters, 3 and up, Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Haulin Ice collected $115,200 for the front-running 4 ¾-length score, pushing her career total to $958,650. Nodouble, the country’s two-time champion older horse, completed his racing career in 1970 with $846,749. The 7-furlong Princess Rooney was a “Win and You’re In” for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

Haulin Ice, a 4-year-old gray daughter of millionaire Oaklawn stakes winner Coal Front, has won 10 of 17 starts overall, including six stakes (five in 2025). Haulin Ice is a two-time Oaklawn stakes winner, whipping state-breds in the $150,000 Downthedustyroad Breeders’ March 1 and open company in the $250,000 Matron March 29. Both races were 6 furlongs.

The 5-2 second choice Saturday, Haulin Ice ($7), quickly grabbed an uncontested lead under Edgard Zayas and was never threatened. The winning time over a good track was 1:22.80.

Haulin Ice could have broken Nodouble’s record with a victory in her previous start, the $75,000 Sheer Drama Handicap Aug. 16 at Gulfstream Park, but she finished second as the odds-on favorite. The runner-up finish snapped a four-winning streak and left Haulin Ice ($843,450) just short of the record.

After the Downthedustyroad and Matron, Haulin Ice collected her first career graded stakes victory in the $175,000 Vagrancy (G3) May 4 at Aqueduct and was a front-running winner of the $75,000 Musical Romance Handicap June 22 at Gulfstream Park. Both races were 6 ½ furlongs.

Haulin Ice’s first career stakes victory came in the $75,000 Azalea at 7 furlongs in July 2024 at Gulfstream Park. The Azalea was Haulin Ice’s second start for Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

Haulin Ice originally raced for her breeder, Arkansan Eugenia Thompson-Benight, and trainer Lindsay Schultz. Haulin Ice made her first five career starts at Oaklawn (all at the 2023-2024 meeting) before being privately purchased in the spring of 2024 and transferred to Joseph.

Haulin Ice won three races for Schultz at the 2023-2024 Oaklawn meeting and has a 6-2-0 record in eight lifetime starts in Hot Springs, with earnings of $612,050. Haulin Ice races for C2 Racing Stable (brothers Clint and Mark Cornett), Paul Braverman, Miller Racing (Myron Miller), and Timothy Pinch.

In addition to the Matron, Haulin Ice beat open company at Oaklawn in a December 2024 allowance sprint.

Haulin Ice (then at $688,100) became the leading accredited Arkansas-bred female career money winner with her Matron victory, eclipsing the retired Connie K, who amassed $620,612 in a 28-race career in 20021-2024.

Haulin Ice was named 2024 Arkansas Horse of the Year by the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ & Horsemen’s Association. Nodouble, the 1968 Arkansas Derby winner, won 13 of 42 lifetime starts.

Finish Lines

Oaklawn’s stable area opens Oct. 23, with the track opening for training Oct. 28 in advance of its 2025-2026 meeting. The 64-day split season is scheduled to run Dec. 12-May 2. … Favored Oaklawn-raced Smoken Wicked ($3.68) won the $300,000 Harrods Creek Stakes for 3-year-olds at 7 furlongs Saturday at Churchill Downs. … Oaklawn maiden winner Gateskeeper, at odds of 83-1, finished second in the $400,000 Gallant Bob Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds at 6 furlongs Saturday at Parx. … Oaklawn-raced Hypnus finished second in the $250,000 St. Louis Derby for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles Friday at Fairmount Park. … Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner G W’s Girl finished second in the $100,000 Weather Vane Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 6 furlongs Saturday at Laurel. … Oaklawn-raced Quickick finished third in the $175,000 Seneca Overnight Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles Saturday at Churchill Downs. … Oaklawn all-time leading trainer Steve Asmussen enters Tuesday with a record 10,982 career North American victories, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Asmussen has 993 career Oaklawn victories. … Trainer Norman McKnight recorded his 1,000th career North American victory in Thursday’s seventh race at Woodbine with favored Balls in Ur Court ($3.80), according to Equibase. McKnight has 87 career Oaklawn victories, including nine at the 2024-2025 meeting. McKnight, in recent years, has split his time between Oaklawn and Woodbine in his native Canada. McKnight, who made his Oaklawn debut in 2018, will reportedly retire this year. … Jockey Ramon Vazquez, an Oaklawn regular, rode five winners Saturday at Remington Park. Vazquez has ridden six winners on a single card twice in his career and has three five-win days at Oaklawn: Jan. 25, 2015; April 9, 2015; and April 19, 2019. Vazquez has 3,831 career North American victories, including 472 at Oaklawn.