Oaklawn Stakes Advance – $150,000 Pippin Stakes

Stakes Advance – $150,000 Pippin Stakes
Compiled by Robert Yates

Contact: Chris Ho Vice President of Marketing

cho@oaklawn.com, 501-623-4411 ext. 4201

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025


$150,000 Pippin Stakes

Jockey Joseph Bealmear can make more Hoosier history aboard Corningstone in the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for fillies and mares Friday at Oaklawn.

Bealmear, Oaklawn’s champion apprentice in 2023-2024, has ridden Corningstone in her last three starts, notably the $150,000 Piedi Bianchi Handicap Oct. 1 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The 1 1/16-mile Piedi Bianchi provided Bealmear with his first career stakes victory and pushed Corningstone’s earnings to $879,728, a career record for an accredited Indiana-bred female, eclipsing, ironically, Piedi Bianchi ($829,497).

“It’s such an awesome feeling,” Bealmear, 21, said. “It’s really like winning your first race over again. You’re just on cloud nine the next couple of weeks. And then you win another one, and you feel even better. She’s given me a lot. I’m really thankful for that horse.”

After becoming the all-time richest Indiana-bred in her last start, Corningstone ($974,128) can become the first Hoosier to reach $1 million in career earnings with a victory or runner-up finish in the Pippin, a 1 1/16-mile race she captured last season for trainer Kenny McPeek.

Following the Piedi Bianchi, Corningstone won the restricted Fireball Baby Overnight Handicap Oct 29 at Horseshoe Indianapolis and in her last start finished second, beaten two lengths, in the $400,000 Falls City Stakes (G3) at 1 1/8 miles Nov. 27 at Churchill Downs. Corningstone finished ahead of millionaire multiple Grade 1 winner Raging Sea and Grade 3 winner Regaled, who was exiting a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

“She’s been a really awesome filly since I first started to work with her before I won my first stake on her,” Bealmear said. “I think she’s just improved every race since then. It was a huge step up in company from the stakes in Indiana to that Grade 3 at Churchill and she ran great. She gave me everything she had.”

Corningstone’s best work has come at Horseshoe Indianapolis, but she’s also a multiple stakes winner at Oaklawn. In addition to the Pippin, Corningstone won the one-mile Mistletoe Stakes last season. Corningstone’s previous riders have included Brian Hernandez Jr. and Julien Leparoux, who both have strong business ties to McPeek, Oaklawn’s third-leading trainer last season.

“We’ve talked,” Bealmear said. “Kenny’s a really good guy and I used to gallop for him. We’re starting to work a little closer now and I’m really honored, really happy for that.”

Corningstone is the 2-1 second choice in the program for the Pippin, which highlights a 10-race program that begins at 12:30 p.m. CST. Probable post time for the Pippin, the eighth race, is 3:52 p.m.

Standoutsensation, the 9-5 program favorite, has won four of her last five starts for trainer Tom Amoss, including the Turnback the Alarm Stakes at 1 1/8 miles Nov. 2 at Aqueduct.

“She’s really gotten good,” Amoss said. “She’s gained a lot of confidence recently. This will be her toughest race, by far. Training well. Just got up there earlier this week. Tactical speed is such a weapon and she has it. You can place her where you like, based on how the race sets up.”

In Just My Heels, Queen Azteca, Peignoir and Reagan’s Flame complete the six-horse field. Rodolphe Brisset trains Queen Azteca, winner of the 2025 U.A.E. Oaks (G3), and Peignoir.

Corningstone, a 5-year-old daughter of Kantharos who races for Payson Stud (Christian Erickson) and RTA Family Trust (Royce Pulliam), is seeking her eighth career stakes victory. Corningstone, nearing a broodmare career, has a 10-7-5 record from 30 lifetime starts.

“We’re going to try to get over a million dollars,” McPeek said. “She was a $75,000 yearling purchase and she’s just hickory. She might run two more times.”

Corningstone is a half-sister to Ice Cold and First Division, two other Oaklawn winners for McPeek. Ice Cold won the $200,000 Year’s End Stakes for 2-year-old fillies in 2023 and First Division captured a Dec. 12 allowance.

Bealmear rode his first career winner Dec. 30, 2023, at Oaklawn (We Miss Arlington) and finished with 19 victories overall that season.

Bucchero ($947,936) held the previous record for career Indiana-bred money winners.