Some of the winter season’s best dirt racing returns to the Midwest with the start of 2025-26 campaign at Oaklawn Park.
This Friday (12/12) the winter/spring meet at the Hot Springs, Arkansas facility gets underway.
Oaklawn racing boasts big fields, which make for good betting races for handicappers.
They feature an excellent Stakes program, along with very strong purses throughout its 64-raceday season that will continue until Kentucky Derby Day– May 2nd.
A major difference between this year’s Oaklawn season and last year’s will be a four-day-a-week racing schedule for the February through April portion of the meet, which will be termed the Classic Meet.
The opening four weeks of action from December 12th-January 4th will be called the Holiday Meet.
The live racing calendar takes a new, three-week hiatus between the two meets that will encompass much of the month of January before the season resumes on January 30th.
The Oaklawn Park Stakes schedule is, for the most part, unchanged from last year despite the lack of racing throughout much of January.
The headline event of the season (as always) will be the $1.5 million-dollar, Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on March 28th.
Kentucky Derby hopefuls will also have chances to rack-up some Derby points in the Grade 3, million-dollar Southwest Stakes on January 31st and then the Grade 2, million-dollar Rebel Stakes on March 1st.
For horseplayers though, the Oaklawn Park meet is more about the excellent day-to-day handicapping offerings than the Stakes races.
The dirt racing (this is a dirt racing-only meet with no turf course) contested throughout the season at Oaklawn is on par with the best dirt racing being conducted anywhere at this time of year.
The Oaklawn dirt track is a one-mile oval and the vast majority of its races will be run at three distances – six furlongs, one mile, and 1 1/16 miles.
There is an alternate finish line at the sixteenth pole which accommodates one-mile races with a fair run-up into the first turn.
Best of luck to all who play Oaklawn.
