After the frenetic cross-country road trip at Picks and Ponderings last week, Paul and I stay in one place for this weekend’s stakes preview.  It is Rebel Stakes day at Oaklawn Park, and there are three graded stakes races on the docket.  We preview all three.

I take a look at the Rebel Stakes (GII), the next of the Kentucky Derby preps in Hot Springs.  The race features the return of American Pharoah.  The field also includes two sons of 2007 Rebel Stakes hero Curlin: Sakima makes his stakes debut, and Bold Conquest makes the second appearance of his three-year-old year.

Paul Mazur dives into the two races for older horses, the Azeri Stakes (GII) and the Razorback Handicap (GIII).  The Azeri features the four-year-old debut of Untapable, as well as the Illinois-bred multiple stakes winner Diva’s Diamond.  The field in the Razorback includes Oaklawn horse-for-the-course Ride On Curlin, as well as another Illinois-bred multiple stakes winner, I Got It All.

Head on over to Picks and Ponderings, see what we have to say about the races, and let us know what you think in the comments!