The Oak Tree Derby is a race for thoroughbred horses run at Santa Anita Park during the Oak Tree Racing Association meet each year. The Grade IIT event is open to three-year-old horses willing to race 1⅛ miles on the turf and offers a purse of $150,000.
The Oak Tree Derby was inaugurated in 1969 as the Volante Handicap, and was named for Lucky Baldwin's 1885 American Derby winner, Volante, who was rode to the finish line by jockey Isaac Burns Murphy.
In 1997 the Volante Handicap was renamed the Oak Tree Derby. It was run on the undercard of the Saturday Breeders' Cup card in 2008 and 2009.
Read more about Oak Tree Derby: Records, Winners of The Oak Tree Derby
Famous quotes containing the words oak and/or tree:
“The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)