Compiled by Robert Yates

Indiana-bred star Corningstone is the 8-5 program favorite for the 43^rd running of the $150,000 Pippin Stakes Sunday at Oaklawn.

Probable post time for the Pippin, a 1 1/16-miles event for older fillies and mares, is 4:22 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 12:30 p.m., with the Pippin the ninth of 10 races.

The Pippin was originally scheduled to be run Jan. 11, but racing was canceled last weekend after Hot Springs received nearly a foot of snow.

Corningstone notched her fourth career stakes victory in her last start, Oaklawn’s $150,000 Mistletoe at one mile Dec. 14 for trainer Kenny McPeek. Corningstone won the Mistletoe, her first stakes victory in open company, by 4 ¼ lengths over odds-on favorite Taxed, who is also entered in the Pippin.  

Overall, Corningstone, a 5-year-old daughter of Kantharos, has a 7-6-4 record from 22 starts and earnings of $670,818.

“Shame they didn’t run last weekend because we really felt confident then,” McPeek said. “But she just continues to be consistent, a hard trier and gives it everything she’s got every time.”

Corningstone is scheduled to break from the rail under Julien Leparoux and carry equal top weight of 122 pounds. Taxed, the 5-2 second choice in the program for trainer Randy Morse, is scheduled to break from post 5 under Ricardo Santana Jr.

The Pippin drew nine entrants, including Bow Draw and Tapit Jenallie, third and fourth, respectively, in the Mistletoe.

New faces include the Chris Hartman-trained Tripolina (3-1), a listed stakes winner sprinting in Canada, Oaklawn allowance winner Neom Beach (10-1) for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Let’s Duet (15-1), a supplemental nominee for McPeek.

Let’s Duet, a 6-year-old Keen Ice mare with 25 lifetime starts, will be making her stakes debut after surpassing $400,000 in career earnings with an allowance victory at 1 1/16 miles Dec. 15 at Oaklawn in her last start. In Just My Heels, runner-up in that race, returned to win a one-mile allowance Jan. 5 at Oaklawn.

“This is a (mare), that timing’s everything,” McPeek said. “She’s chipped away at $400,000, kind of the hard way and she’s probably going to be bred. This might be one of her last opportunities to get black type and she’s probably coming off the best race of her life.”

Asmussen is seeking his record-tying third Pippin victory after winning the race in 2007 with Plaid and again in 2017 with Terra Promessa.