HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 3, $600,000 Essex Handicap on Saturday at Oaklawn Park drew an accomplished field, as seven of the nine entrants are stakes winners led by the 121-pound highweight First Mission. The race, which is for 4-year-olds and up over 1 1/8 miles, shares a card with the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes. It is the final local stepping-stone to the Grade 2, $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap on April 20. First Mission, winner of the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland last year at 3, meets fellow stakes winners Ain’t Life Grand, War Campaign, Great Escape, and Wizard of Westwood. The field of nine also includes the stakes-placed Magic Tap, who will vie for favoritism, and Lure Him In, who is scheduled to scratch in favor of the Ghostzapper next weekend at Gulfstream Park, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. told Daily Racing Form’s Marcus Hersh. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. First Mission last raced at Gulfstream and finished an uncharacteristic ninth in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational. He was one of the top choices under Luis Saez after finishing second by a nose in the Grade 2 Clark at Churchill Downs. “He struggled with the track,” said Brad Cox, who trains First Mission. “He didn’t handle the kickback at all. You could kind of tell as soon as they turned up the backside. He just wasn’t taking Luis where he needed to be, and Luis came back and said he struggled with the racetrack a good bit.” First Mission has since been working sharply at his base of Fair Grounds, where he went five-eighths in a bullet 1:00.60 on March 15. “We wanted to back off of him a little bit, long ship over there to Florida and back to New Orleans,” Cox said. “He’s trained really, really well, especially over the last month. He’s really come to life again and looks good and is acting like he’s ready to move forward. He’ll need to. It looks like a pretty solid race on paper.” First Mission has more natural speed than a number of his rivals and could be quite prominent as he seeks to nail down his first win at 1 1/8 miles. It’s the same distance he raced over in the Pegasus and the Clark. “I think he’ll be forwardly placed, and hopefully he can continue on,” Cox said. “He should be able to handle the mile and an eighth. I thought he ran a good race in the Clark. He was very lightly raced, was pressured the whole way, and basically turned away everyone with the exception of the horse that had his nose down. And then he galloped out well.” Florent Geroux has the mount on the Street Sense homebred for Godolphin. Magic Tap was second in the Grade 3 Razorback last month at Oaklawn and is now back racing at the distance over which he is a two-time winner. Keith Asmussen has the mount for Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen. Magic Tap is weighted at 118. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.