HOT SPRINGS -- Today's $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes covering 1 mile for horses 4-years-old and up will start at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort loaded with familiar names and members of racing's elite.
As an example, consider Gary and Mary West's Concert Tour.
A 4-year-old son of Street Sense and maternal grandson of Tapit, Concert Tour finished third as the 1-5 favorite in Oaklawn's Grade I Arkansas Derby last season. Trained throughout his 2- and 4-year-old campaigns by hall of famer Bob Baffert, Concert Tour now races from the barns of Brad Cox, the 2020 Eclipse Award winner for outstanding trainer.
Post time for the Fifth Season, the eighth of nine races on Oaklawn's card, is scheduled for 3:46 p.m.
Concert Tour's listed rider is Joel Rosario, who led North American jockeys in 2021 purse earnings with $32,944,478, the second-ever highest yearly total.
Concert Tour is the 5-2 morning-line favorite, though he has not raced in more than eight months. In his last start, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith rode Concert Tour to a ninth-place finish in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
Rosario, a virtual lock for the 2021 Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey, returned to racing at Oaklawn on Friday after a hairline rib fracture kept him from races for seven weeks. He said he is confident Cox will have Concert Tour ready for the Fifth Season.
"Brad is a very good trainer," Rosario said. "He's amazing, and I think he has confidence in me and the horse."
Rosario rode Concert Tour's first four starts, including a win in Oaklawn's Grade II Rebel Stakes last season.
"I'm very excited to get back on him," Rosario said. "He's a good horse, and thanks to his connections and Brad Cox for the opportunity."
Other Fifth Season entrants include graded stakes-placed Snapper Sinclair and Silver Prospector, winner of Oaklawn's Grade III Southwest Stakes in 2020 -- each from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen -- and Long Range Toddy, owned by Willis Horton of Marshall and ridden by Jon Court to a win in the 2019 Rebel.
"This is going to be an interesting race," said jockey David Cohen, set to ride M And M Racing's Thomas Shelby, the 5-1 morning-line fourth choice. "It's one of those ones that, even though you're riding it, you want to watch it afterward no matter what the results are. Guys all over the country are going to watch this race,"
Each Fifth Season entrant has at least one Oaklawn start, led by Rated R Superstar with 18. A 9-year-old gelded son of Kodiak Kowboy, Rated R Superstar was once a Kentucky Derby hopeful who finished second in the 2015 Grade III Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs, his first of four starts in 2016 Derby qualifiers.
Rated R Superstar won Oaklawn's Essex Handicap at 14-1 in 2019. He is one of three Fifth Season entrants with career earnings over $1 million.
"It's tough," Rated R Superstar's owner Danny Caldwell said of the Fifth Season field. "It's not going to be easy."
John Ortiz trains the 7-2 morning-line second-choice Mucho, a 6-year-old son of Blame who has not run a two-turn race in 29 career starts.
Florent Geroux is set to ride Mucho, owned by WSS Racing and 4 G Racing. Ortiz said he believes Mucho is ready for the added distance. In his last start, on Dec. 18, Mucho won at 6 furlongs in a $120,000 allowance field at Oaklawn in 1:09.90.
"I am as confident as I have ever been in a horse," Ortiz said. "He's done everything for us. He owes me nothing. We don't expect anything from him except to perform his best, and he usually does. There's nothing that has me concerned.
"We're going to try the two turns. The horse has shown us he can come out of the gate quicker than he's done in the past, and he still shows us he has a turn of foot down the stretch. To me, I think it's a good idea to give him a shot at two turns. Get a good break, settle and let's see him get that sprinter's turn of foot down the stretch."
Chris Hartman trains 9-2 morning-line third-choice Necker Island, a 5-year-old son of Hard Spun owned by the Scherr Boys. After wins in two consecutive stakes starts at Churchill, Necker Island finished fourth of seven in the 6-furlong Thanksgiving Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Nov. 25.
Necker Island finished ninth in the 2020 Kentucky Derby.
"He made a good showing in the Derby," Hartman said. "He's not without talent. He's got game, for sure."
Thomas Shelby, trained by Robertino Diodoro, won three consecutive starts before he finished second in his most recent outing to stablemate Lone Rock in Oaklawn's Tinsel Stakes on Dec. 18.
Cohen expects Thomas Shelby, who will start from the first stall, to lead early.
"That will be our game plan, especially getting the rail," he said. "There doesn't seem to be a whole ton of speed, so we should, as long as he breaks well and everything goes well the first few jumps, be able to get him to the front and obtain the lead going into the first turn."
Whatever the result, the winner will leave stars in his wake.
"This race is pretty tough," Hartman said.