John Ed Anthony has been racing horses at Oaklawn Park for more than a half-century. In a season in which he has already scored a milestone victory and picked up multiple stakes scores, he looks to hit another high note this Saturday as Bubble Rock, a homebred for his Shortleaf Stable, looks to punch her Kentucky Oaks ticket in the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes. Anthony, who raced under the Loblolly Stable banner before transitioning to his current Shortleaf moniker, scored his first win as an owner at Oaklawn with P. F. Mayboy on Feb. 16, 1972. Fifty years and 10 days later, his homebred Rolling Fork won an Arkansas-bred allowance on Feb. 26, 2022, marking Anthony’s 270th Oaklawn victory, the most by any owner. That win broke a tie with the late Sharon Hild. Anthony has since added four more wins at the track – including homebred Gar Hole in the Nodouble for statebreds on March 5 – and is the meet’s leading owner by both earnings and winners entering this week. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales “Obviously, you wouldn’t do something for 50 years if it weren’t a lot of fun,” Anthony told Oaklawn. “I’m proud to be in Arkansas and I’m proud to support Oaklawn, and I’ve cheered for Oaklawn throughout all 50 years and found it to be very receptive and very cooperative and a great place to race.” Anthony has campaigned the likes of classic winners and champions Prairie Bayou and Temperence Hill, champion Vanlandingham, and the standout Cox’s Ridge. His top runners in recent years under the Shortleaf banner have included millionaire Plainsman, who won the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap this meet at Oaklawn and was second in the Grade 3 Essex Handicap. Anthony boards his broodmares at McDowell Farm near Sparkman, Ark., and at Stone Farm in Paris, Ky. “I finally decided that the name of the game was really homebreds and so we developed a broodmare band,” Anthony said. Among his Kentucky-breds on the track is Bubble Rock, who won 2 of 4 starts last year, including the Grade 3 Matron Stakes sprinting on the turf. She was a troubled 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. This year on Turfway Park’s synthetic, the More Than Ready filly was second in the Valdale Stakes before winning the Cincinnati Trophy at a mile on March 5, earning 10 Kentucky Oaks points. The Fantasy is worth 100 points to the winner.