2025 thoroughbred schedule has new feature race added to racing card
OKLAHOMA CITY — The 2025 Remington Park thoroughbred season will begin on Aug. 8 and features regular major races in the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby and the $300,000 Remington Springboard Mile.
A new addition this season is the first major turf sprint stakes in track history.
The $250,000 Great West Turf Sprint will be included on the undercard of Oklahoma Derby Day on Sept. 28. The Great West Turf Sprint will be five furlongs over the turf for 3-year-olds and older.
“We feel the addition of the Great West Turf Sprint adds more value to Oklahoma Derby Day and our overall stakes schedule,” said Matt Vance, Remington Park executive vice president of racing. “Our turf course is in prime condition for the first three months of our season. We believe the Great West will be a potential fit for horsemen looking for prep opportunities just over a month before competing in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. The five-furlong distance of the Great West is the exact same distance as the BC Turf Sprint at Del Mar this fall.”
The Great West Turf Sprint rekindles the name Great West, used in the early years at Remington Park for a local derby prep when the track offered a spring thoroughbred season.
The Oklahoma Derby could include Kentucky Derby runners from this year, including the 2024 Springboard Mile winner Coal Battle, who is allowed automatic free entry into the race by virtue of his triumph in the top 2-year-old event at Remington Park. Coal Battle is owned by Norman Stables and trained by Lonnie Briley. Coal Battle ran 11th in the Kentucky Derby last month after winning the Grade 2, $1,250,000 Rebel Stakes in February at Oaklawn Park, then running third in the Grade 1, $1,500,000 Arkansas Derby in March.
Last year’s winner of the Oklahoma Derby was Most Wanted, a 3-year-old shipper from Ellis Park in Kentucky for owners Gary and Mary West, who also bred the horse. The trainer was Brad Cox, who became the first conditioner to win the richest race on the Remington Park schedule race four times.
