The $150,000 Oaklawn Stakes at Oaklawn Park April 23 doesn't carry Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) implications, but the 1 1/8-mile dirt race does provide its winner an automatic berth into the May 21 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course.
It seems unlikely that any in the seven-horse Oaklawn Stakes are up to Triple Crown-contending standards. Not one has hit the board in a stakes race.
Stellar Tap , Home Brew , The Skipper Too , and Happy Boy Rocket are the race favorites based on their allowance accomplishments.
Stellar Tap, a gray son of Tapit trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen for owners L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds, was second in an allowance optional claiming race April 1 at Oaklawn after a ninth-place finish in the Rebel Stakes (G2) there.
Stellar Tap is best known for being the horse that made Asmussen the winningest trainer in North American history when he gave him his 9,446th winner last summer in a successful debut at Saratoga Race Course.
Home Brew (Street Sense ) races following a layoff of more than 3 1/2 months after running 10th in the Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 1. He had previously won an allowance optional claimer at Oaklawn Dec. 4 for dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox and owners Gary and Mary West.
Joel Rosario rides 5-2 morning-line favorite Stellar Tap while Jose Ortiz is aboard 3-1 Home Brew.
Oaklawn Park, Saturday, April 23, 2022, Race 8Entries: Oaklawn S.
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Clancy's Pistol (KY)
Ramon A. Vazquez
118
Robertino Diodoro
8/1
2
2Stellar Tap (KY)
Joel Rosario
118
Steven M. Asmussen
5/2
3
3Kuchar (KY)
Florent Geroux
118
Rodolphe Brisset
5/1
4
4Home Brew (KY)
Jose L. Ortiz
121
Brad H. Cox
3/1
5
5Long Crow (KY)
Isaac Castillo
118
Steven M. Asmussen
12/1
6
6The Skipper Too (FL)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
118
John Alexander Ortiz
4/1
7
7Happy Boy Rocket (KY)
Martin Garcia
118
William I. Mott
5/1