HOT SPRINGS -- As soon as word of Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort's schedule change reached trainer Kenny McPeek last summer, he began to consider a return almost immediately.
Tweaks to Oaklawn's schedule have come frequently since the track first opened for racing in 1904, but few changes have matched the significance of the one announced July 6. On that day, Oaklawn president Louis Cella told the racing world his track had moved its start of racing back from the fourth week of January to the first week of December.
Last season, Oaklawn's schedule ran from Jan. 22-May 1. This season starts Friday and is scheduled to run through May 8, 2022.
McPeek noticed.
"We'll be there longer," he said. "Before, we were really only there for February and March. Now it's closer to five months, so you can leave a division there. Certainly, the purse structure there is enticing. I've won a lot of races there, and hopefully, I can win a lot more."
McPeek, a licensed trainer since 1985, kept much of his stable at Oaklawn for winter and spring racing from 2012-2017. He followed that tenure with four winter and spring seasons based in Florida, with an emphasis on races at Gulfstream Park in the Miami suburb of Hallandale Beach. Once again, McPeek has opened a barn at Oaklawn. He said he will start with a smattering of talented horses there as he maintains barns at Gulfstream and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
"As the winter goes, according to horses that fit, they'll come in and out," McPeek said. "I'll have a base of horses in Florida, as well, and I also have a group that'll run at Turfway."
The idea of an extended schedule at Oaklawn appealed to him from the start, McPeek said.
"I like the December starting date," McPeek said. "It's a big deal, especially if you write some races for young horses. It gives us a chance. You know, you're just there longer. Before, when we were starting in late January, we were running February and March. I would go off to Keeneland at the first of April. I'll say, I'll still probably run a lot of horses at Keeneland in April [2022], but the December start date is a really wise move on Oaklawn's part."
Currently ranked 18th among North American trainers with earnings this year of $6,785,269, McPeek will put a bundle of racing stars in his barn, including Lucky Seven Stable's colt Smile Happy.
Smile Happy, a 2-year-old son on Runhappy and maternal grandson of Pleasant Tap, is new to the 2022 Kentucky Derby-qualifying points list with the 10 he earned for his win in the Grade II Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday. McPeek said Smile Happy, 2 2-0-0, might participate in at least part of Oaklawn's four-race Derby qualifying series scheduled to begin Jan. 1 with the one-mile Smarty Jones Stakes.
"I think the series fits really good for Smile Happy," McPeek said.
Moments after Smile Happy's stakes win, jockey Corey Lanarie said the colt exhibited maturity usually reserved for far more experienced racehorses.
"He's very rateable and easy to ride," Lanarie said. "I felt very confident with him at the half-mile pole. I could tell I had a lot of horse beneath me. I got him into the right spot and he really kicked clear in the stretch. He's got a bright future."
McPeek, recently noteworthy for his conditioning of Swiss Skydiver, a filly earmarked during her 2020 3-year-old campaign with a Triple Crown win in the Grade I Preakness Stakes, said Smile Happy is another contender for three-year-old stardom.
"He's got high cruising speed, this horse, and he's fast," McPeek said. "He's learned his lessons quickly, and he looks good. He's certainly putting it together really quick."
McPeek said he was impressed at first sight by the then-unnamed yearling who would become Run Happy.
"He's a big beautiful horse," McPeek said. "I said to [owner] Mike Mackin, 'If you're going for individuals, there's the individual.' I think people get a little bit sideways on stallions. I think he was kind of trending downward. I don't really get all enamored by that stuff. I like to buy the individual. I showed him the horse, and I said, 'Look, that's a beast, right there.' He said, 'All right, let's go buy him.'
"He's a real contender, no doubt. As many years as I've been in this, he's probably as good a shot as I've ever had. He's doing this off raw talent, the first couple of races. We'll have to ask more of him, but he's got it in him."