Nadal
Credit: Coady Photography
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s unbeaten 3-year olds, Nadal and Charlatan, arrived Tuesday following a flight that originated earlier in the day in Southern California. Both are entered in Saturday’s split $500,000 Arkansas Derby (G1) for 3-year-olds. Arriving on the same flight was another Arkansas Derby entrant, 2-year-old champion male Storm the Court, for trainer Peter Eurton.
Mexican star Letruska (8 for 9 overall) is entered in Thursday’s eighth race, a 1-mile allowance for older fillies and mares, for trainer Fausto Gutierrez. Previously based in south Florida, Letruska represented the first Oaklawn starter for Gutierrez in an April 16 allowance victory. Also entered are Motion Emotion, runner-up in the $500,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3) last year at Oaklawn, and 2017 Fantasy third Vexatious.
Jon Court, Oaklawn’s leading rider in 2000, is scheduled to make his comeback in Friday’s fifth race aboard Colonelsdarktemper for trainer Jinks Fires of Hot Springs. Court, 59, hasn’t ridden since Feb. 13 after sustaining broken ribs and a collapsed lung, in an accident going to the gate for a race, his longtime agent, “Big Steve” Krajcir of Hot Springs, said. Court, who is named on two horses Saturday, has 4,181 career victories to rank 63rd in North American history, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Court has 688 career victories at Oaklawn, the first coming in 1981.
Oaklawn Park Press Release
