HOT SPRINGS — Six older sprinters, led by 4-year-old Apprehender, are entered in today’s $60,000 King Cotton Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

The King Cotton falls exactly one year after 1 Apprehender’s 7 /2-length debut romp at Oaklawn.

Apprehender, a 4-year-old Posse gelding, went on to run second or third in three stakes races, missing by a nose in the $200,000 Remington Park Sprint Championship on Sept. 30 at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

“It says a nose, but it was like a hair,” trainer Chris Richard said. “It was as close as you could get without a dead heat. He’s been very, very consistent at this level.”

Apprehender made his first five career starts, including four at Oaklawn, for trainer Ingrid Mason before being transferred last summer to Richard, then based at Prairie Meadows in Iowa.

Richard said the gelding’s owners, John and Chris Robson, are from Iowa and wanted to get Apprehender off the synthetic surface at Arlington Park near Chicago because he wasn’t running or training well over it.

Apprehender has 2 victories, 2 seconds and 1 third in 5 starts for Richard.

The gelding closed 2012 with a half-length allowance victory Dec. 8 at Remington.

Apprehender is scheduled to break from post 2 today under Alex Birzer and carry 115 pounds. Apprehender is 5-1 in the program.

“It’s a short field, but it’s a very quality field,” Richard said. “But I think he fits in the race. We’ll see what we can do.”

Richard said the major spring objective for Apprehender is the $250,000 Grade III Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 13.

Hamazing Destiny, co-owned by Little Rock-based Westrock LLC (Joe and Scott Ford), ran fourth in the 2010 King Cotton and second last year.

Hamazing Destiny, a 7-year-old son of Salt Lake, is a Grade III winner of $845,708 for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Laurie’s Rocket, also trained by Lukas, won the $75,000 Bachelor Stakes last year at Oaklawn.

Laurie’s Rocket is owned by Willis Horton of Marshall.

Lukas and Horton teamed to win Monday’s $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes with Will Take Charge.

Probable post time for the King Cotton, the eighth of nine live races, is 4:38 p.m.

Racing begins today at 1 p.m.

The King Cotton Purse $60,000, 6 Furlongs, 4-year-olds and up.

APPREHENDER won two races last season at Oaklawn, and also finished a strong second in the Bachelor. He ships from Remington in top form and may be the controlling speed in a contentious race. ALSVID won four stakes races in 2012, while beating the top selection twice at Remington, but he is not proven over the local surface. LAURIE’S ROCKET looked good defeating a quality field of optional claiming rivals Jan. 17, and has the class to move up and repeat.

Wagering menu

Win, place, show (all races)

Exacta (all races)

Trifecta (all races)

Superfecta (races 4 and 6 and last race)

Daily double (races 1-2, 8-9)

Classix (races 3-8)

Pick-3 (begins with races 4, 5 and 7 on nine-race cards)

Pick-4 (begins with race 6 on nine race cards)

Sports, Pages 29 on 01/26/2013