2026.02.03 Stakes Advance – Fifth Season 2026

Stakes Advance – $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes
Compiled by Robert Yates

Oaklawn resumes racing Thursday with a 10-race card highlighted by the $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes for older horses at 1 mile.

The Fifth Season was originally carded Jan. 30 in conjunction with the opening of Oaklawn’s scheduled 51-day Classic racing season. But Oaklawn moved its Jan. 30, Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 programs to this week following a winter storm late last month that closed the track for training for nine days. Oaklawn concluded its 13-day Holiday racing season Jan. 4.

Probable post time for the Fifth Season, the eighth race, is 3:57 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 12:30 p.m.

A field of nine is entered in the Fifth Season, but at least three horses, including 8-5 program favorite Pony Express and Grade 3 winner Komorebino Omoide, will scratch, the Oaklawn racing department said Tuesday morning.

Speed King, the 5-2 second choice on the original morning line, is bidding for his second Oaklawn career stakes victory after wiring the field in the $1 million Southwest (G3) for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles last January. Speed King’s next two starts were also around two turns locally, but he finished 10th in the $1.25 Rebel Stakes (G2) and sixth in the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) after a protracted speed duel with Cornucopian

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Speed King resurfaced to finish fifth in the Maxfield Stakes at seven furlongs June 29 at Churchill Downs, then was fourth in a Nov. 8 allowance sprint Churchill Downs.

“We gave him his first race up there, knowing that he’d probably need one in that kind of competition,” said Ron Moquett, who trains Speed King for co-owner Ted Bowman of Hot Springs. “Everybody’s like, ‘Well, he ran well his first out (a front-running 2 ¼-length career-debut victory).’ Well, he ran well against maidens his first out. That (Maxfield) was graded-stakes kind of horses. We can have a little grace for him coming off that kind of layoff and getting ready.”

Speed King snapped a four-race losing streak in his last start – a Dec. 26 allowance sprint at Oaklawn – scoring by 5 ½ front-running lengths in a sharp 1:09.45 for six furlongs. Speed King tries two turns for the first time since the Arkansas Derby in late March. Jockey Luis Saez retains the mount on Speed King, who drew post 9.

“Our goal was to get him ready to run here,” Moquett said. “Knock on wood, we’re here, so let’s lead him over and see where we’re at.”

Seize the Night, Thoughtthatcounts, Woodcourt, American Law, Runaway Again and Will Take It are also entered in the Fifth Season.

Will Take It won the $300,000 Hanshin Stakes for older horses at one mile June 29 at Churchill Downs for trainer Dallas Stewart.

Seize the Night won the $175,000 Tinsel Stakes for older horses at 1 1/8 miles in January 2025 at Oaklawn. Woodcourt is winless in nine in stakes races, but in 2024 he finished third in the Illinois Derby and fourth in the Rebel (G2). Cipriano Contreras trains both horses.

American Law will be the first career stakes starter for trainer Sarah Shaffer, who went out on her own last summer. American Law gave Shaffer her first career victory in a one-mile starter allowance Dec. 14 at Oaklawn. Although American Law is cross-entered in the $135,000 General MacArthur Overnight Stakes for older horses at 1 1/8 miles Friday at Oaklawn, Shaffer said the gelding will run in the Fifth Season.

Thoughtthatcounts and Runaway Again are both trained by David Jacobson. One of Jacobson’s entrants is expected to scratch, the Oaklawn racing department said. Runaway Again won the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, last September at Fort Erie in his only career dirt start.