{"id":17185,"date":"2025-07-23T05:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/17185\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T05:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T05:32:11","slug":"stakes-schedule-oaklawn-increases-fantasy-stakes-purse-to-1-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/17185\/","title":{"rendered":"Stakes Schedule: Oaklawn Increases Fantasy Stakes Purse To $1 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stakes Schedule: Oaklawn Increases Fantasy Stakes Purse To $1 Million<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oaklawn will offer the highest stakes purses for both fillies and colts on the road to Kentucky for the upcoming 2025-2026 racing season.<\/p>\n

The purse for Oaklawn\u2019s Fantasy Stakes (G2), which launched the campaign of 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna, will increase to $1 million, and the Honeybee Stakes (G3) increases for the second consecutive season, from $500,000 to $750,000. Oaklawn\u2019s first qualifying race for the Kentucky Oaks, the Martha Washington Stakes, offers a $300,000 purse, bringing the total stakes purses available for 3-year-old fillies with Kentucky Oaks aspirations to more than $2 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase to our Fantasy Stakes by itself makes a very strong statement,\u201d Oaklawn\u2019s President, Louis A. Cella, said. \u201cThis will be the first time in the history of North American racing that 3-year-old fillies will have an opportunity to run for a seven-figure purse prior to the Kentucky Oaks. When you factor in the Honeybee at $750,000 and Martha Washington at $300,000, it\u2019s clear Oaklawn continues to be the nation\u2019s best track to condition 3-year-olds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Oaklawn\u2019s road to the Kentucky Derby remains the nation\u2019s richest path, with the $250,000 Smarty Jones kicking off the series Jan. 3, followed by the $1 million Southwest Stakes (G3) on Jan. 31, the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) on March 1 and the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) on March 28.<\/p>\n

In all, Oaklawn will offer a record 62 stakes races during the 64-day racing season. Stakes purses alone will exceed $18.3 million, more than double the total from the 2019 season. Total purses for the 2025-2026 season are projected to remain at last year\u2019s level, nearly $1 million per day.<\/p>\n

In an Oaklawn first, the 2025-2026 season introduces a three-week gap in its schedule. A \u201cHoliday Meet\u201d runs Dec. 12 – Jan. 4, with at least one stakes race per day. A four-day schedule will resume Jan. 30 – May 2.<\/p>\n

In another Oaklawn first, the Rebel Stakes card – which also features the Honeybee (G3) – is scheduled for Sunday, March 1, which will mark the first time the premier race is intentionally set for that day of the week.<\/p>\n

Six new overnight stakes have been added throughout the season, including \u201cThe Coach\u201d Overnight Stakes, honoring Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.<\/p>\n

The first condition book for the 2025-2026 racing season is now available at www.oaklawn.com.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Jul 22, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stakes Schedule: Oaklawn Increases Fantasy Stakes Purse To $1 Million originally appeared on Paulick Report. Oaklawn will offer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[11277,773,11280,11279,11278,11282,3004,11281,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-17185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-fantasy-stakes","9":"tag-kentucky","10":"tag-kentucky-oaks","11":"tag-martha-washington","12":"tag-martha-washington-stakes","13":"tag-oaklawn","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-rebel-stakes","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}