The 5-year-old horse Skippylongstocking won the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 20 with a 107 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest dirt-route stakes figure so far in 2024. Two lengths behind him in second came Highland Falls, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox. Saturday, in the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster Stakes, Skippylongstocking faces another Godolphin homebred trained by Cox, but First Mission is a horse of a different color, and not merely because he is bay and Highland Falls chestnut. Highland Falls probably lacks Grade 1 class, while 4-year-old First Mission has a chance to become the best older dirt-route horse in North America. First Mission got a 106 Beyer thumping overmatched rivals in the Grade 2 Alysheba on May 3, a performance meant to build First Mission up to the Foster, the colt’s second chance to win his first Grade 1. “This race has been the goal since he won the Essex at Oaklawn,” Cox said. “We’ve kind of tightened him up over his last few works. He looks amazing, moving well. We always thought he was Grade 1 quality.” The 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster, which drew nine older horses, is the fifth of six consecutive stakes, carded as races 7-12, on the penultimate day of Churchill Downs’s spring meet. The Stephen Foster is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the winner earning an automatic fees-paid berth into the $7 million Classic. Rain is possible Saturday during another 90-plus-degree afternoon. :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  Skippylongstocking drew post 9 as the 5-2 second choice on the track’s morning line, which pegs First Mission the 6-5 favorite. Disarm, among the three most likely winners, would offer value at the morning line’s 6-1. The other entrants, in predicted order of finish, are Pyrenees, Dreamlike, Kingsbarns, Steal Sunshine, Happy American, and Classic Causeway. First Mission, a classically sculpted Street Sense colt, has raced only eight times and probably has not reached his zenith. The colt didn’t debut until February of his 3-year-old season, too late for Derby candidacy, and likely would’ve been favored in the 2023 Preakness had a race-week injury not knocked him out of the race. In his first major test against older horses, Trademark, hardly world-class, beat him a nose last fall in the Grade 2 Clark Stakes at Churchill. If First Mission got a B-plus for the Clark, he flunked the Pegasus World Cup in January, never getting involved, beaten 20 lengths in a performance too poor to be true. Skippylongstocking and Disarm stand a cut above anything First Mission beat in the Essex or the Alysheba, but the Foster, like the Clark offers First Mission a stage upon which to grab the spotlight. Florent Geroux rides from post 2 and, as Cox notes, the Foster lacks true speed horses. Cox prefers a target, but can First Mission find one? Kingsbarns probably lacks the speed to lead but has enough pace to pin Geroux to the fence if the plan is to let Skippylongstocking cross and clear, then attempt to come outside and press him. Jose Ortiz rides Skippylongstocking for the second time, having picked up the mount at Oaklawn when Tyler Gaffalione opted for Keeneland engagements, according to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Skippylongstocking did worse in the Pegasus than First Mission, pulled up with what his connections afterward said was heatstroke. The 5-year-old bounced back with a low-figure win in the Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs before running the race of his life in the Oaklawn Handicap. “Other than the Pegasus he just has become more consistent,” Joseph said. “He’d never really stacked together races at high numbers. Last time, I really liked how he finished that off.” Joseph prepared for the Foster at the Palm Meadows training center, where Skippylongstocking has turned in typically inscrutable workouts. On June 7, a decidedly inferior mate, Positive Review, outworked him, but Skippy came back the next week and easily bested the same partner. “He’s a hard horse to get a read on like that,” Joseph said. “He’s definitely much better in the afternoon.” Disarm’s first race at age 4 resembled a workout more than actual competition. Starting for the first time since a second-place finish Aug. 26 in the Grade 1 Travers, Disarm set a walking pace in a May 18 Churchill allowance, going his first half-mile in an impossible 52.01 seconds. The low 85 Beyer he earned had everything to do with the early and middle tempo, and trainer Steve Asmussen was happy enough with the comeback. “This is good timing for him, and he’s gotten in several solid works since he ran. There definitely is a lack of real pace in the race: I see a bunch of 48-and-changes and not many 46s,” said Assmussen, referring to half-mile splits. Disarm, beaten more than four lengths by First Mission when they met in the Lexington as 3-year-olds, has shown top-class potential, but he, too, seeks his first Grade 1. Among the others, Pyrenees, a late-blooming 4-year-old who won the Pimlico Special over Kingsbarns last month, has the most upside. The Into Mischief colt won a maiden and two allowance races before hitting a peak at Pimlico. “He continues to improve, and this is a test to see what his top may be,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said. First Mission’s top might be too high for all of them. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.