He’s baaaaaack! One of the most popular racehorses in training is set to make is 4-year-old debut Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. Sandman, who was a top Kentucky Derby prospect last year at age 3 and is partially owned by social media content creator and racing ambassador Griffin Johnson, is entered in the fourth race at Oaklawn against a tough field. The gorgeous gray or roan Tapit colt has not competed since the end of August but has been training steadily for his return, and Johnson, the rest of his owners, and Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse have high expectations for him this year.

Here are five things to know as Sandman prepares to resume his racing career:

1. He’s coming back to race at his favorite track. Sandman has started four times at Oaklawn Park and finished in the top three each time. His record is two wins, one second, and one third, highlighted by a 2 ½-length win in the Arkansas Derby last spring that punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs.

2. He held his own last year against the best of his age group. After his Arkansas Derby win, Sandman ran a solid seventh of 19 horses in the Kentucky Derby and then finished a rallying third in the Preakness Stakes. The Derby was won by Sovereignty, who was voted both 2025 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male last month, and the Preakness was won by Journalism, who was also a finalist for Horse of the Year. The 2025 group of 3-year-olds was one of the best this century, and Sandman was just a notch below the top rank.

3. This year, he’ll start racing in what’s called “open company.” Sandman is now 4 years old, which means that he’ll be competing against horses age 4 and older and later in the year might also face against 3-year-olds who have completed the Triple Crown series. He returns in what’s called an allowance-optional claiming race. This race is open to horses age 4 and older who have to meet certain conditions to qualify. In Sandman’s case, he qualifies because he has not won four races so far in his career (he’s 3-for-12, with one second and three thirds). He’ll face eight opponents that range in age from 4 to 6 and they’ll compete for a purse of $126,000. Two of his foes are offered to be “claimed” or bought for a price of $100,000 prior to the start of this race, but Sandman most definitely is not for sale.

4. He’ll be reunited with one of his favorite jockeys. Jose Ortiz rode Sandman in last year’s Arkansas Derby win and overall has been aboard the colt in six of his 12 starts. Ortiz is currently the leading jockey at Fair Grounds and will skip riding at that New Orleans track and travel to Oaklawn Park Saturday to pick up the mount on Sandman.

5. He returns to compete against a field that includes three other Kentucky Derby horses. Catching Freedom and Track Phantom both ran in the 2024 Kentucky Derby, while King Russell was in the 2023 Derby. The best finish among those three came from Catching Freedom, who closed well to finish fourth in a Derby where the top three horses were noses apart. Sandman is the 2-1 morning-line favorite in this race, but it is no cakewalk.

New To Horse Racing? Let Us Explain...

Morning line: In horse racing, each racetrack hires an oddsmaker to give estimates about what kind of support a horse will receive from bettors in the pari-mutuel win pool, which collects win wagers from everyone gambling on a particular race. These estimates are called morning-line odds and are usually announced a day or two before the race is run. The morning-line odds are a starting point when a race becomes open for betting and will change as bettors begin to make their wagers. The final odds are determined by each horse’s percentage of the win pool and can be very different from the morning-line odds for each horse by the time the race starts.

Fans have followed Griffin Johnson’s accounts as Sandman prepares for his return. The colt’s training has been affected by winter weather across the southeast in recent days, and Oaklawn had to postpone several cards last week. Still, he appears fit and ready based on his recent workouts for Mark Casse, and if he runs well Saturday, he’ll probably move up to compete in stakes races again. One thing’s for sure: there’ll be plenty of interest in this lovable racehorse as he makes a comeback.

Sandman’s race has a scheduled post time of 2:32 p.m. ET (1:32 p.m. CT, local time) and will be televised on both FS2 and FanDuel TV.

A note on Griffin Johnson’s 2026 Derby prospects: Both Ewing and Curtain Call, who are co-owned by Griffin through West Point Thoroughbreds and trained by Casse, impressed last year at age 2 by winning races at Saratoga. After those victories, they were included among the early group of prospects for this year’s Kentucky Derby on May 2. However, they did not run in the marquee stakes races held for top 2-year-olds late in the year and since turning 3, they have not competed in early Kentucky Derby preps either. On the positive side, both have returned to training, with Ewing posting a series of solid workouts in recent weeks at Oaklawn Park and Curtain Call recording his first workout since last fall on Jan. 29 at Mark Casse’s training center in Florida. Keep an eye on them – even if they don’t return in time to make the Kentucky Derby, the future appears bright for both.