Count Fleet Winner Skelly Returns Dec. 30 at Oaklawn

Oaklawn Park's top sprinter from its prior meet is ready to return. Red Lane Thoroughbreds' multiple stakes winner Skelly  is entered in the eighth race Dec. 30 at the Arkansas track, a six-furlong $143,000 allowance.

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Skelly excelled at Oaklawn last season after being gelded and adding blinkers. He won his final four meet starts, including the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) April 15 and the inaugural $150,000 Lake Hamilton Stakes May 6.

The Practical Joke   4-year-old has not started since the $100,000 Speightstown Sprint Stakes May 29 at Lone Star Park, which marked the gelding's fifth consecutive victory, all at six furlongs. Asmussen said he decided to freshen Skelly following the Speightstown Sprint and point for the 2023-24 Oaklawn season.

"He had run several very hard races early in the year, over the winter," Asmussen said. "Needed a break."

Ricardo Santana Jr. rides the morning-line favorite.

Also entered are millionaire Necker Island  and Sir Wellington , second and third, respectively, in the $150,000 Ring The Bell Stakes Dec. 9 at Oaklawn; Edge to Edge , third in the Whitmore Stakes (G3) in March; and a seeking-to-rebound Manny Wah , who won the Phoenix Stakes (G2) at Keeneland in 2022 in advance of a fourth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) there that fall.

He is winless in seven starts since the Phoenix and makes his first start Saturday for trainer Will Walden.