Evangeline Downs Set to Kick Off 2022 Season April 6

The 2022 Thoroughbred season at Evangeline Downs will begin Wednesday, April 6. The meet will consist of 84 days of racing, running on a Wednesday through Saturday weekly schedule and concluding Aug. 27. First post each night will be at the new time of 5:30 p.m. CT.

The stakes calendar features a couple of new additions with the Acadiana and Lafayette Stakes. Both of these races were previously contested under state-bred conditions but are now open stakes events. The Acadiana, for 3-year-old fillies, will be run Friday, April 15, with the Lafayette, for 3-year-olds, the following night. The May stakes action features the Evangeline Downs Distaff for 4-year-old and up Louisiana-bred fillies and mares May 6, and the Evangeline Downs Classic for Louisiana-bred 4-year-olds and up May 7.

The featured night of the Thoroughbred racing season will take place June 4 with the Louisiana Legends Night. The exciting card will include six stakes races for horses bred in the Bayou State, each with a purse of $75,000. A new star emerged last year as Cilla  took the Louisiana Legends Mademoiselle Stakes and later scored a graded stakes win in the Prioress Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course in September.

July will see the renewals of the Opelousas and John Henry Stakes turf races. The Opelousas will be run July 1 for 3-year-old and up fillies and mares. The John Henry, to be run July 2, is for 3-year-olds and up.

The final month of the racing season will include a couple of stakes weekends. The Aug. 5 card will include the Spotted Horse, a stakes for 3-year-old and up fillies and mares. The Evangeline Mile, for 3-year-olds and up, will be contested Aug. 6. Louisiana-bred 2-year-olds will take center stage on closing weekend with the D.S "Shine" Young Futurities—the fillies division Aug. 26 and the colts and geldings division on closing night Aug. 27.

Tim Thornton, a three-time riding champion at Evangeline Downs, will be the top returning rider in 2022. Thornton, who captured his fourth consecutive riding title at Delta Downs over the winter, finished second in the standings last season with 100 wins. Gerard Melancon eclipsed the 5,000th career wins mark last summer and returns looking to add to his stellar career. Apprentice Vincente Del-Cid will be a new face in the jockey colony this season. Joe Stokes, Pedro Cotto, Jr., Devin Magnon, Kevin Smith, and Aubrie Green are among some of the riders looking to have a solid meet.  

Eduardo Ramirez will be back to defend his 2021 leading trainer title and will face a stiff challenge from the Karl Broberg barn. The former assistant to Karl Broberg notched 44 wins and a 31% winning clip to unseat the perennial leader last year. Other regulars returning with stables to the Opelousas oval include Keith Bourgeois, Sam David, Sam Breaux, Rylee Grudzien, Ron Faucheux, and Allen Landry. Ricky Courville, trainer of Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserves (G1) hopeful Un Ojo , will also return with a stable for the 2022 season.