Here are five things you need to know as Sandman prepares to resume his racing career:
1. He’s coming back to race at his favorite track. Sandman has made four starts at Oaklawn Park and finished in the top three each time. His record is two wins, one second and one third, highlighted by a two-and-a-half-length win in the Arkansas Derby last spring that punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs.
2. He held his own against the best of his age group last year. After his victory in the Arkansas Derby, Sandman rode a solid seventh of 19 horses in the Kentucky Derby and then finished third in the Preakness Stakes. The Derby was won by Sovereignty, who last month was named both 2025 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male, and the Preakness was won by Journalism, who was also a finalist for Horse of the Year. The 2025 group of 3-year-olds was one of the best of this century, and Sandman was just a step below the top rankings.
3. This year he will be racing in what is called an ‘open company’. Sandman is now 4 years old, which means he will compete against horses aged 4 years and older and later in the year perhaps against 3-year-olds who have completed the Triple Crown series. He returns in a so-called ’emissions-optional claims race’. This race is open to horses aged 4 years and over who must meet certain conditions to qualify. In Sandman’s case, he qualifies because he hasn’t won four races so far in his career (he’s 3-of-12, with one second and three thirds). He will face eight opponents from the ages of 4 to 6 and they will compete for a cash prize of $126,000. Two of his enemies are offered to be ‘claimed’ or purchased for a price of $100,000 prior to the start of this race, but Sandman is definitely not for sale.
4. He is reunited with one of his favorite jockeys. Jose Ortiz rode Sandman to victory in the Arkansas Derby last year and has aboard the colt in six of his 12 starts overall. Ortiz is currently the lead jockey at Fair Grounds and will skip riding that New Orleans track and travel to Oaklawn Park on Saturday to pick up the mount at Sandman.
5. He returns to compete against a field of three other Kentucky Derby horses. Catching Freedom and Track Phantom both ran in the 2024 Kentucky Derby, while King Russell ran in the 2023 Derby. The best finish of these three came from Catching Freedom, who finished well to finish fourth in a Derby where the top three horses were noses apart. Zandman is the 2-1 morning line favorite in this race, but it’s not a cakewalk.
New to horse racing? Let’s explain…
Morning line: In horse racing, each track hires an oddsmaker to provide estimates on what kind of support a horse will receive from bettors in the pari-mutuel winning pool, which collects winning bets from everyone betting on a particular race. These estimates are called morning line odds and are usually announced a day or two before the race is held. The morning line odds are a starting point when a race opens for betting and will change as bettors begin placing their bets. The final odds are determined by the percentage of each horse’s winning pool and may be very different from the morning line odds for each horse by the time the race starts.
Fans have been following Griffin Johnson’s reports as Sandman prepares for his return. The colt’s training has been affected by winter weather in the Southeast in recent days, and Oaklawn had to postpone several cards last week. Still, he looks fit and ready based on his recent training for Mark Casse, and if he performs well on Saturday he will likely step up to compete in stakes racing again. One thing is certain: there will be a lot of interest in this sweet racehorse as he makes a comeback.
Sandman’s race has a scheduled post time of 2:32 PM ET (1:32 PM CT, local time) and will be televised on both. FS2 And FanDuel TV.
A note on Griffin Johnson’s 2026 Derby prospects: Both Ewing and Curtain Call, who are co-owned by Griffin through West Point Thoroughbreds and trained by Casse, impressed last year at age 2 by winning races at Saratoga. Following these victories, they were included in the early group of candidates for this year’s Kentucky Derby on May 2. However, they did not compete in the major stakes races held late in the year for the top two-year-olds and since turning three they have not participated in the early preparations for the Kentucky Derby. On the plus side, they have both returned to training, with Ewing posting a series of solid workouts at Oaklawn Park in recent weeks and Curtain Call recording its first workout since last fall on Jan. 29 at Mark Casse’s training center in Florida. Keep an eye on them – even if they don’t make it back in time for the Kentucky Derby, the future looks bright for both.
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