Oaklawn Park Race Track
In 1973, at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana, Ron Ardoin earned the first of his 5226 career wins. During his thirty-one years in racing he won twelve riding titles at Louisiana tracks, earning six at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans and another six at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City. Ardoin also won a riding title at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas. At Oaklawn Park Race Track in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he scored the most significant win of his career when he rode Zarb's Magic to victory in the 1996 Arkansas Derby. That win led to his second appearance in the Kentucky Derby, in which he had finished tenth in 1985, riding Zarb's Magic to a thirteenth place result.