Oaklawn's 2021 meet kicks off Friday January 22nd with a 9 race card and the highlight of the card will be the Kentucky Derby Prep Race, the Smarty Jones Stakes. This is Oaklawn's 1st of 4 prep races to be ran before the Run for the Roses in May. Oaklawn's Kentucky Derby points series will follow with the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 15, $1-million Rebel Stakes (G2) March 13 and the $1-million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 10.
Cowan, a son of Kantharos out of Tempers Flair, by Smart Strike, has finished second in each of his last two races, including the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, who won the Smarty Jones last year with Golden Street looks to repeat with this colt. Cowan earned 4 points toward his Derby campaign and sits 12th on the current Kentucky Derby Leaderboard. (Full Standings HERE)
Also entered is the Brad Cox trained, Caddo River who will make his stakes and two-turn debut. Caddo River has been based at Oaklawn and logged two half-mile workouts, including a :48 move over a fast track Sunday morning that ranked the third-fastest out of 85 published at the distance. His last victory was 9 1/2 length romp in his maiden at Churchill back in November.
Images by https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/