Barn Notes 12/5/25
Compiled by Robert Yates
Another year, another opening-day rush to Oaklawn's entry box.
An eye-popping 123 horses were entered Friday morning for Oaklawn’s Dec. 12 program, the first of 64 scheduled racing dates in its 2025-2026 split season.
The 10-race total represents a 9.8 percent increase over last year. Oaklawn’s opening-day entries have climbed the last five seasons. There were 88 entrants in 2021-2022, 92 in 2022-2023, 109 in 2023-2024, and 112 for 10 races last season.
Prior to the 2023-2024 season, Oaklawn had opened with nine-race cards every year since 1956, with the exception of 2003, when 10 races were run for the first time.
The first nine races in the initial 2025-2026 condition book were used, with seven races drawing full fields of 12 and two also-eligibles.
The featured eighth race, the $150,000 Advent Stakes for 2-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs, drew a field of seven, including unbeatens Strong Potential for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Boca Beach Club for trainer Jimmy DiVito, along with stakes-placed Spun D M C for trainer Randy Morse. Strong Potential will be ridden by Hall of Famer Joel Rosario, who will regularly be at Oaklawn for the first time since 2021-2022.
Racing begins at 12:30 p.m. CDT, with probable post time for the Advent at 3:52 p.m. Grandstand doors open at 11 a.m.
Oaklawn’s 13-day Holiday racing season runs through Jan. 4. The 51-day Classic racing season is Jan. 30-May 2.
Oaklawn will again offer the country’s highest purses this winter, with a projected $900,000-plus per-day average in 2025-2026. Statistics from the Holiday and Classic racing seasons will be combined to determine Oaklawn’s 2025-2026 human and equine champions, according to Jason Milligan, Oaklawn’s director of racing.
(De)Frost Free
Moments after winning the $175,000 Bachelor Stakes last May at Oaklawn with Max Got Excited, owner Danny Keene was asked about the status of Frost Free, his 2024 Bachelor runner-up.
“He’s just taking a break,” Keene said. “We’ll have him ready next year at Oaklawn.”
Armed with a string of recent bullet workouts, Frost Free’s lengthy break is apparently coming to an end. Trainer Brett Creighton said the speedy Frost Free, a Grade 3 winner, is scheduled to make his comeback in Oaklawn’s $150,000 Ring the Bell Stakes Saturday, Dec. 13.
The Ring the Bell, a six-furlong event for 3-year-olds and up, will mark Frost Free’s first start since an 11th-place finish in the G1-Woody Stephens Stakes in June 2024 at Saratoga. Creighton said Frost Free’s long layoff was triggered by the removal of knee chips following that race.
“We got him going again, and he started carrying heat in his other knee, so we just gave him a break,” Creighton said.
Following the initial physical setback, Frost Free returned to the work tab last December at Oaklawn. He had four more published workouts in 2024-2025 at Oaklawn, the last coming Jan. 27, before being shelved again.
Frost Free has had four published workouts leading into this season at Oaklawn, including three consecutive half-mile bullets (Nov. 15, Nov. 22, and Wednesday).
“He’s doing good, too,” Creighton said. “I mean really good.”
Frost Free, a 4-year-old gray son of Frosted, has a 3-1-2 record from nine career starts and earnings of $306,720. In 2024, Frost Free won an allowance race at Oaklawn before capturing the G3-Chick Lang Stakes in May at Pimlico. The Chick Lang represented the first career graded stakes victory for Creighton, who started his first horse in 1989, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization.
“That’s what we’ve got our fingers crossed for,” Creighton said, referring to the Ring the Bell.
Frost Free has never faced older horses.
Max Got Excited is also on the comeback trail after finishing 10th in his last start, the Maxfield Stakes on June 29 at Churchill Downs. Creighton said the gelding is targeting a late-December allowance sprint at Oaklawn for his return.
“I think that’s a good spot starting him back,” Creighton said. “We gave him time, too. He needed a break.”
Creighton trains privately for Keene and manages his local breeding farm/training center.
Finish Lines
Oaklawn’s annual horsemen’s meeting to discuss protocol for the 2025-2026 split season is on Wednesday at 2 p.m.CDT in the track kitchen. … Entries will be accepted and post positions drawn Sunday for Oaklawn’s Dec. 13 card, highlighted by the $150,000 Ring the Bell Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs. … Florida-based Grade 1 winners Sandman (Arkansas Derby) and La Cara (Ashland and Acorn) arrived around 4 a.m. (Central) Friday in “great shape,” according to Caden Arthur, who oversees dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse’s Oaklawn division. … Silver Syndicate, an unraced 2-year-old son of multiple Grade 1 winner Liam’s Map, is targeting a late January, early February debut, co-owner Louis Cella said Thursday morning. Cella, Oaklawn’s president since 2017, said he’s a 50-50 partner in Silver Syndicate with businessman and social media influencer Dave Portnoy (Go Go Greys Stable). Cella said Silver Syndicate, a $400,000 purchase in May’s Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in training sale, is the first horse he’s owned with Portnoy. Silver Syndicate, who is trained by Ron Moquett of Hot Springs, has had three published workouts this season at Oaklawn.
