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 tree, oak and/or tree:
“Where he swings in the wind and rain,
In the sun and in the snow,
Without pleasure, without pain,
On the dead oak tree bough.”
—Edward Thomas (1878–1917)
“I could lecture on dry oak leaves; I could, but who would hear me? If I were to try it on any large audience, I fear it would be no gain to them, and a positive loss to me. I should have behaved rudely toward my rustling friends.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Each has his own tree of ancestors, but at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)