Southwest Stakes

John Oxley's Silent Tactic (Tacitus) drilled five furlongs in 1:01.60 (7/11) Thursday morning at Oaklawn Park in advance of the Mar. 28 GI Arkansas Derby, for which he figures one of the top few betting selections. A $60,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling turned $500,000 OBS April juvenile, Silent Tactic was returning to the worktab for the first time since dropping a nose decision to Class President (Uncle Mo) in the GII Rebel Stakes on Mar. 1. Prior to that the bay flew home to post an impressive victory in the GIII...

John Oxley's Silent Tactic (Tacitus) will likely make his next start in the Mar. 1 GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park following his upset victory in the GIII Southwest Stakes Friday in Arkansas, trainer Mark Casse confirmed. The Southwest was Casse's third consecutive victory in a Kentucky Derby qualifying race at Oaklawn, following last season's GI Arkansas Derby with Sandman (Tapit) and the Jan. 3 Smarty Jones Stakes with Strategic Risk (Noble Bird). Silent Tactic closed to finish second in the 1 1/16-mile Smarty Jones. "The thing, too, it wasn't...

D'code (Speightstown), a jaw-dropping 8 1/4-length debut winner sprinting at Oaklawn Park Dec. 14, will make his highly anticipated two-turn debut in Friday's postponed $1-million GIII Southwest S. in Hot Springs. The Tom Durant homebred and 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' earned a field-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure while defeating 10 rivals that day. He recorded the fastest six-furlong time in Oaklawn history for a 2-year-old stopping the clock in 1:09.57. D'code exits from post two with Luis Saez at the controls in the 1 1/16-mile affair, good for...

Trainer Bob Baffert has confirmed that GII Los Alamitos Futurity winner Litmus Test (Nyquist) will be scratched from Friday's $1-million GIII Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park. Litmus Test was listed at 5-2 on the morning line. "We're waiting for the San Felipe," Baffert said via text. "Never intended to run him at Oaklawn." The GII San Felipe Stakes will be held at Santa Anita Mar. 7. Baffert will still be represented by Buetane (Tiz the Law) in the Southwest. He is the 4-1 second choice, but could go off favored...

'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' D'code (Speightstown) will look to stretch out to two turns as he targets the GIII Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Jan. 31, his connections told track media Saturday. The 2-year-old dazzled in his six-furlong debut Dec. 13, putting up a final time of 1:09.57, the fastest time for the distance in Oaklawn history for a 2-year-old. The 99 Beyer Speed Figure was the second-highest of his generation this year behind only fellow 'Rising Star' Brant's (Gun Runner) 101 at Del Mar in July. "It was...

Oaklawn Park will host a pair of major live horseplayer contests to be held during Southwest Stakes Weekend in 2026, the track announced Friday. The new events, the Southwest Showdown on Saturday, Jan. 31, and the Oaklawn Horseplayer Championship on Sunday, Feb. 1, will bring together top horseplayers from across the country to Oaklawn for a high-stakes competition offering Last Chance/First Chance seats to the 2026 or 2027 National Horseplayers Championship (NHC), 2026 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC), and cash prizes. "We are excited to introduce a marquee horseplayer contest...

The GII Fantasy Stakes will be worth $1 million when it is run next year at Oaklawn Park, while the purse for the Arkansas track's GIII Honeybee Stakes will be increased for the second consecutive time, from $500,000 to $750,000 in 2026. "The increase to our Fantasy Stakes by itself makes a very strong statement," Oaklawn's President Louis A. Cella said. "This will be the first time in the history of North American racing that 3-year-old fillies will have an opportunity to run for a seven-figure purse prior to the...

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale marks a full decade as an open auction when it begins its three-day run Tuesday afternoon and, with a well-attended under-tack show last week followed by a busy weekend of showing, consignors are optimistic demand will be high for the first juvenile sale of the season. The sale, originally slated to begin at 11 a.m. Mar. 11, will now get going at 1 p.m. to allow horsemen more time in the wake of the consolidated under tack show....

In racing as in life, good things come to those who wait. And while we have had to endure an extra 24 hours for Sunday's rescheduled GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the wait may just prove worth it as a full, competitive field of 3-year-olds line up with 50 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby on the line. The top three runners from the GIII Southwest Stakes face each other once again Sunday with Speed King (Volatile) taking top billing back on Jan. 25 over a hard-closing...

A veteran Hall of Fame trainer, Mark Casse knows that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. The Casse-trained Sandman (Tapit) turned in a remarkable effort in his last start, the GIII Southwest S. at Oaklawn, finishing second after breaking in a tangle and dropping far behind the leaders. Once straightened out, he rallied furiously and finished second, missing by just a length. To talk about the Southwest and Sandman's next start, Sunday's GII Rebel S. at Oaklawn, Casse joined the team on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast...

We're learning more every day about the relationship between horses and mankind and how people struggling with such things as PTSD so often thrive and recover when working closely with horses. But can it work the other way? Can a human have such a positive and calming effect on a horse that a bond and relationship develops that makes the horse prosper? In the case of GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational winner White Abarrio (Race Day) and his groom Eduardo (Lalo) Diaz, it looks like that might be the case....

Speed King (Volatile), second as the favorite in the Remington Springboard Mile Stakes Dec. 13, ran them off their feet in Saturday's GIII Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, good for 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Overlooked at odds of 14-1 while drawn widest of all in post nine, Speed King cleared the field beneath Rafael Bejarano heading into the clubhouse turn. He set fractions of :24.11 and :47.82, gave them the slip on the far turn and kept on finding down the stretch to pull off...