Count de Monet, Two Eagles River Grapple in Renaissance

The final day of 2022 has juveniles in focus at Oaklawn Park, as the Arkansas track for the first time will offer a full card of races strictly for 2-year-olds. Among the 10 races are the $150,000 Renaissance Stakes for juveniles at six furlongs and the $150,000 Year's End Stakes for juvenile fillies at a mile.

The action for these 2-year-olds comes a day before they officially turn age 3 on New Year's Day, the universal birthdate for Thoroughbreds in the Northern Hemisphere.

Charles Galli's unbeaten Count de Monet , who pushed his record to 3-for-3 with a victory in the opening day Advent Stakes Dec. 9 at Oaklawn, leads the Renaissance, along with Two Eagles River , a speedy gelding who recorded a win and a second in two starts at Churchill Downs.

Tom Swearingen trains Count De Monet (Speightster ), while Chris Harman conditions Mach 1 Racing and Scattered Acres' Two Eagles River (Cloud Computing  ).

Four others are in the lineup: Bourbon Bash , Frosted Departure —both stakes-placed—and recent maiden winners Spurrier  and Chocktaw Zip.

Class-dropping Defining Purpose , recently fifth behind Hoosier Philly  in the Nov. 26 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) at Churchill, leads an evenly matched group of nine in the Year's End. The Cross Traffic gray broke her maiden a race earlier there in her second career outing on Nov. 17 for trainer Kenny McPeek and owners Magdalena Racing, Colette Marie Vanmatre, and James Ball.

Unifying , Take Charge Briana , Bluelightspecial , and Fabulous Candy  are other contenders.