Skippylongstocking Returns in Essex Handicap

Fresh off a career-best win over White Abarrio  in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1), Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking  is set to return as the headline act in the $500,000 Essex Handicap (G3) March 21 at Oaklawn Park. The 7-year-old son of Exaggerator  was originally slated for the March 7 Santa Anita Handicap (G1), but he became agitated while loading on the plane from Florida to Southern California, which led trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. to cancel his travel and scratch his horse from that event. 

Joseph had Skippylongstocking vanned to Oaklawn Park for the Essex.

"Everything went smooth," Joseph said. "He's always been a very good traveler, so I don't know what set him off a little bit. It was a bit unusual and that made my decision easy, just to take him off the plane."

He will face seven rivals in the 1 1/8-mile race, where he will carry the top weight of 124 pounds, as by far the most accomplished horse in the race.

Skippylongstocking has 11 stakes victories—all graded—from 36 career starts. He won back-to-back runnings of the $1 million Charles Town Classic Stakes (G2) in 2023-24 before running an uncharacteristically poor race, beaten 39 1/4 lengths in the 2025 renewal, when he wasn't himself because of an electrolyte imbalance known as thumps.

Freshened thereafter, Skippylongstocking returned to win the Harlan's Holiday Stakes (G3) in December at Gulfstream Park before notching his first grade 1 victory there by taking the Pegasus World Cup in his 2026 debut.

"Between the thumps that day and sending him hard from a pace scenario, we just said after that, that we were going to ride him patient," Joseph said. "We rode him more patient in the Harlan's Holiday and it worked, and then we rode him patient again in the Pegasus. The horse has tactical speed to put himself in a good spot, but his best performances have been when you ride him more patiently."

Among his competition will be Spendthrift Farm and Repole Stable's rapidly improving Accelerize . The lightly raced son of Omaha Beach   enters the race off a game second-place effort, finishing a head behind 2025 Dubai World Cup (G1) victor Hit Show  in the Mineshaft Stakes (G3) Feb. 14 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. 

Tristar Farm's New York hero Doc Sullivan  will venture outside the Empire State for just the second time in his four-year career to the Hot Springs, Ark., track, where he has been training for the past month. He has made one start in 2026, finishing second to the grade 1-placed Be You  in the Feb. 6 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack. The son of Solomini   has never won at distances beyond 1 mile, so he will have to be at his best Saturday when facing a group of graded stakes performers.

Mackman , Duke of Duval , Gould's Gold , Runaway Again , and San Siro  round out the field.