HOT SPRINGS -- Robertino Diodoro, the two-time training champion at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, offered a familiar face to racegoers in Saturday's $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes if his horse and jockey did not.
With Cristian Torres and Francisco Arrieta on other mounts, local rookie Harry Hernandez used the occasion to post his first Oaklawn stakes victory. He and Torres, whose 100 wins led the Oaklawn standings last season, both use former trainer Cody Autrey as an agent.
Promise Keeper, with a rail-skimming ride until Hernandez sought more favorable footing late in the race, won by a half-length over Torres' mount, Seize the Night, with 7-year-old racing millionaire Silver Prospector third. Durante, in his local debut for David Jacobson, finished last of six after installed as the program favorite. Brigadier General and meet winner Nautical Star were late scratches when the track came up sloppy.
In Oaklawn's first stakes race in two weeks, witnessed by a crowd estimated at 20,000, 6-year-old Promise Keeper (by Constitution out of the Curlin mare Mira Alta) won for owner Randy Howg at 7-1 odds.
Hernandez, taking advantage of the rail post, got home first after a mile in the slop at 1:40.93. The 27-year-old rider missed the first six days of Oaklawn's meeting after breaking a collarbone in an accident during training Nov. 25 at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, where Promise Keeper last raced 10 days earlier. Taking his book last summer in Oklahoma, Autrey suggested the local meet as a climb up the class ladder for Hernandez after riding titles at Canterbury Park (Minnesota) and Turf Paradise (Arizona).
"We're trying to get to the next level," Autrey said after Hernandez steered home winners paying double-digit prices for trainers James Watkins and Diodoro. "He's dominated Turf Paradise and Canterbury for years, right? So there were two things: Stay where you are or try to get to the next level. And this is the obvious path to try to get to the next level."
He can derive inspiration from Torres, who at 26 rode a Kentucky Derby contender for trainer Brad Cox when Catching Freedom took the $300,000 Smarty Jones on Jan. 1 at Oaklawn. Hernandez, whose first two local wins came sprinting, showed in the Fifth Season that he can win going long with the same, front-running approach.
"Now we're just working hard and trying to get lucky, which we did already," Hernandez said earlier this month.
"My goal," he said, "is to have a good meet, come out of here safely and come back next year."
For the second straight day, Torres had three winners, giving him a meet-high 21. He won the fourth for Tom Amoss, the sixth for Eddie Milligan and the seventh (Jubella, $7.40) for Diodoro, who missed the first five days of the season when suspended for a drug overage at last year's Oaklawn meeting.
Emmanuel Esquivel also doubled Saturday, winning the first race for Ken McPeek and the third for Miguel Silva.
It was veterans' day in Oaklawn's second race with two-time local champion Jon Court winning aboard Harleezy ($23) for Gary Hartlage, who tied Kenny Smith for an Oaklawn season title. Court won the Arkansas Derby in consecutive years and Hartlage took the Apple Blossom Handicap with On Fire Baby.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, 88, teamed with Nik Juarez to win the eighth with Major Blue ($31.40).