Race 9 at Oaklawn Park | Sunday January 19 | Post Time 5:22 PM Eastern

Pippin Stakes | Purse $150,000 | Fillies and Mares, Four Years Olds and Upward | One Mile and One Sixteenth

Analysis and top contenders:

Tripolina (6) is the fastest horse in the field. Better still, her opening odds will offer excellent value. This is because there are a pair of so-so favorites in the race in Taxed (5) and Corningstone (1). Taxed has won just one time in seven starts at Oaklawn, finishing second three times including five weeks ago when beaten four lengths by Corningstone as the prohibitive 4 to 5 favorite in the similar Mistletoe Stakes. Before that, Taxed lost four straight races and was never really a thread in two of those. Her last win came in a third level allowance race last April at Oaklawn where she earned a 102 Equibase Speed Figure. That effort even if repeated isn’t good enough to beat Tripolina, who earned a 103 figure four weeks ago, and Tripolina is expected to improve off that effort. As to Corningstone, she won the Mistletoe on a muddy track in a field of five. Prior to that, like Taxed, Corningstone had not won in three races and her last win before the most recent was in a second level allowance last June with a 93 figure.

Back to Tripolina, who is a lightly raced four-year-old with a lot of improving to do in her second start since shipping in from Woodbine and moving to the Hartman barn. She closed strongly from last of nine to get second in that race, which screams “prep” for a longer race like this one. She stretched out just once previously, in the fall of 2023, finishing second in the Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes, at this distance. Vasquez rides back after getting to know her and her pattern for improvement off what is already the fastest last race in the field is undeniable because she earned an 86 figure three back, then 93 two races back, then 103 last month.

Bets:

Win Bets –Tripolina (6) at odds of 2 to 1 or higher.