Charles Town Oaks attracts 12 fillies
Kentucky Derby-winning trainer John Servis will be coming home on Saturday night, when he starts Stormy Novel in the Grade 3, $500,000 Charles Town Oaks. The seven-furlong race, led by Matron winner Miss Behaviour and Iowa Oaks heroine Size, drew an overflow field of 12 when entries were taken on Wednesday. The maximum gate for the race is 10, with Discreetly Elusive and Sky Crew on the also-eligible list for Saturday.
The Charles Town Oaks, a two-turn race run on a six-furlong track, will go as the 11th on a 12-race program that begins at 5 p.m. Eastern. There are six stakes worth $50,000 or more on the card, including the $100,000 Wild and Wonderful that drew Grade 2 winner Pants On Fire. The Charles Town Oaks has a post of 10:30 p.m., and it will be run for the sixth time Saturday.
:: CHARLES TOWN OAKS: Get PPs, watch Saturday's card live
Servis is a West Virginia native from a racing family, and he was raised near Charles Town. He would go on to reach the sport’s heights in 2004, when he sent out Smarty Jones to capture the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
"I grew up less than a half-mile from the racetrack," Servis said. "My mom and dad still live [in West Virginia] and so does my sister."
In recent times, Stormy Novel has established herself as a notable member of the Servis stable, taking the $72,000 Miss Woodford at Monmouth Park in her most recent out July 20. Earlier in her career, she was second to probable Charles Town favorite Miss Behaviour in the $100,000 Miss Preakness at Pimlico in May.
Stormy Novel, a daughter of Bernardini who sold for $300,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September in 2012, races for Cam Allard. She is from the female family of multiple Grade 1 winner Behrens, who recently died at the age of 20. Kendrick Carmouche has the mount on Stormy Novel, who will break from the rail. She will be Servis’s first Charles Town starter since October 2013, when he won a maiden special weight with Secret Code.
The complete Charles Town Oaks field from the rail with riders is: Stormy Novel, Carmouche; Miss Behaviour, Jevian Toledo; Nesso, Abdiel Jaen; Executive Allure, J.D. Acosta; Honey’s Ryan, Abel Castellano Jr.; Pixie Dust, Travis Dunkelberger; Saintly Joan, Angel Serpa; Kiss to Remember, Paco Lopez; Size, Junior Alvarado; Aqua Regia, Eddie Castro; and also-eligibles Discreetly Elusive, Javier Castellano and Sky Crew, Jacob Radosevich.
Pixie Dust will add blinkers.
The forecast for Saturday is sunny skies, a high of 81 degrees a low of 58, with a 10 percent chance of precipitation, according to The Weather Channel.