The city declared a holiday to mark the occasion, and more than 3,000 people attended the first day of racing.

For the next few years, the track was opened and closed periodically because of vagaries in the state's political climate.

In 1929, during the Arkansas legislative session, a bill to allow horse racing and parimutuel betting came to a tie vote in the state House of Representatives.

The only Republican member of the state House at the time, Osro Cobb of Montgomery County, had been out of the chamber when his name was called.

At the end of WWII, Oaklawn held a 30-day late-autumn-and-winter season; together with postwar exuberance and spending, it stimulated an unprecedented period of prosperity.

In 1975, Oaklawn completed a renovation that added a five-level glass enclosure to the north end of the grandstand, near the top of the stretch.

The addition included a general admission area, a 400-person box and 2,500 reserved seats, a kitchen, dining room, and private club.

[6] In 2015, eventual Triple Crown winner American Pharoah began his Eclipse award-winning season with victories at Oaklawn in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby.

[7][8] Just before the 2018 season opened, Oaklawn unveiled a life-sized bronze sculpture of American Pharoah and jockey Victor Espinoza at the grandstand's redesigned entrance.

[9] The work, by Philadelphia sculptor James Peniston, had been commissioned two years earlier by Oaklawn president Charles Cella to memorialize the horse's victories at the Hot Springs track.

[11] Among the reasons given for the change were spring weather conditions and January racing cancellations over the previous decade.

[11] Oaklawn's dirt track is one mile in circumference, with a chute in the backstretch permitting sprint races at 6 furlongs.

In 2008, Oaklawn began a $3 million addition to accommodate casino-style slot machines, poker tables, and an Instant Racing complex.

It has since added live table games—blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games of chance—plus sports wagering and Las Vegas-style slot machines.