| Oaklawn Park's 56-day live season opens on | | | | earnings of $169,870. A wire to wire winner |
| Friday, January 19 with a nine race card | | | | in the Riley Allison Futurity at Sunland Park |
| featuring the five-and-a-half furlong | | | | in New Mexico, Sir Five Star is owned by Gus |
| Dixieland Stakes for three-year-olds.Among | | | | King and trained by Steve Asmussen, who |
| the most notable entries are Officer Rocket, | | | | recently completed a six-month suspension for |
| Irish Dreamer, Sir Five Star, and Go Poppa | | | | medication violations at Sunland Park and |
| Fooze. | | | | Evangeline Downs. |
| | | | |
| Officer Rocket won Arlington Park's | | | | Six times the leading trainer at Oaklawn |
| Spectacular Bid Stakes in August and the | | | | Park, Cole Norman finds himself saddling a |
| Arlington-Washington Breeders' Cup Futurity | | | | serious Dixieland contender in Go Poppa |
| in September but finished fifth in the | | | | Fooze, but both trainer and horse enter the |
| Iroquois Stakes on October 29 at Churchill | | | | race under a cloud of suspicion. Norman was |
| Downs and sixth in the 1 1/16 mile Delta | | | | fined $1,000 and suspended for six months |
| Jackpot at Delta Downs on December 1. Owned | | | | after two of his horses failed pre-race |
| by Frank Fletcher Racing Operations Inc. and | | | | testing before the running of the $150,000 |
| trained by Bob Holthus, whose success at | | | | Jean Lafitte Stakes on November 3 at Delta |
| Oaklawn Park is legendary, Officer Rocket | | | | Downs. Go Poppa Fooze, who won the race by |
| has won three of six starts overall and needs | | | | nine lengths, and fourth-place finisher Bayou |
| a solid performance in the Dixieland to keep | | | | de Storm both showed excessive levels of |
| pace with rival Hard Spun, winner of the | | | | total carbon dioxide (TCO2), said Larry |
| Grade III Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds | | | | Munster, assistant executive director of the |
| earlier this month. | | | | Louisiana Racing Commission. It is believed |
| | | | that horses with high TCO2 counts gain an |
| A solid performance in the Dixieland Stakes | | | | unfair advantage in their ability to run |
| would leave trainer Chris Richard in a | | | | through muscle fatigue. |
| position to enter Irish Dreamer in either the | | | | |
| 1 mile Southwest Stakes on February 19 or the | | | | Norman is appealing the ruling, and will |
| 6 furlong Mountain Valley Stakes on February | | | | continue to saddle horses pending that |
| 24, but first Irish Dreamer must clear his | | | | outcome. A hearing is expected to be |
| final hurdle of 2006 on December 26 at | | | | conducted on January 26, 2007. |
| Hawthorne. The loser of four since an | | | | |
| impressive debut win at Arlington, Irish | | | | The remainder of the field for the Dixieland |
| Dreamer will need to run back to his earlier | | | | includes entry Hadacure and Proud Leader; |
| form to be a serious Derby contender. | | | | Westwon; Tricky's Tick Tock; Tortuga Straits; |
| | | | Harrow Land ; First Regent; Speedway; and |
| Sir Five Star enters the Dixieland with a | | | | Chawnado. |
| career record of four wins from 10 starts and | | | | |