FRIDAY'S ESTIMATED ATTENDANCE 1,750
FRIDAY'S TOTAL HANDLE $4,053,841
FRIDAY'S ON-TRACK HANDLE $201,326
FRIDAY'S OFF-TRACK HANDLE $3,852,515
TODAY'S SIMULCAST SCHEDULE Laurel Park, 11:25 a.m.; Gulfstream Park, 11:35 a.m.; Tampa Bay, 11:35 a.m.; Aqueduct, noon; Fair Grounds, 1 p.m.; Golden Gate, 2:45 p.m.; Santa Anita, 3 p.m.
FRIDAY'S STAR
Florent Geroux won two races Friday. He won the seventh race with Tempt Fate ($7.20, $4.40, $3.20), covering 6 furlongs in 1:10.53, and the eighth race with Ocean Breeze ($3.60, $2.40, $2.10), covering 6 furlongs in 1:10.21.
UPSTRIKER IN TRAINING
Whitmore wasn't the only horse for trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs to arrive at Oaklawn on Dec. 29 after a break in Kentucky.
[Watch Oaklawn races 24 hours after post time » arkansasonline.com/OaklawnReplays/]
Upstriker, Moquett's promising 3-year-old, also made the trek south with his celebrated stablemate and newly minted Eclipse Award winner as the country's champion male sprinter of 2020.
Upstriker ran three times last year, winning his Aug. 30 career debut at Ellis Park before finishing fourth in the $400,000 Breeders' Futurity on Oct. 3 at Keeneland and seventh in the $125,000 Nyquist Stakes on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.
Upstriker is from the first crop of millionaire Upstart, who won the $350,000 Razorback Handicap for older horses in 2016 at Oaklawn.
Moquett said Upstriker's major spring target is the $300,000 Oaklawn Invitational for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on May 1, the final day of Oaklawn's scheduled 57-day meeting. Inaugurated in 2019 and known last year as the Oaklawn Stakes, the winner has received an automatic berth into the Preakness, traditionally the second leg of racing's Triple Crown. Laughing Fox won the 2019 Oaklawn Invitational before finishing fifth in the Preakness two weeks later. Mr. Big News, last year's Oaklawn Stakes winner, finished third in the Kentucky Derby, which was moved from the first Saturday in May to early September because of covid-19.
Information for this report was provided by the Oaklawn media department.