Grade 1-winner Doppelganger, multiple graded stakes winner Skippylongstocking, and late entrant Giant Game will now find themselves vying for favoritism in this year’s Charles Town Classic. The Classic joins the $750,000 Charles Town Oaks (G3), the $350,000 Robert Hilton Memorial, the $250,000 Russell Road, $250,000 Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon, and four $75,000 restricted stakes on Charles Town’s biggest card of the year, which gets underway at 5 p.m. ET

Giant Game has been installed as the 5-2 morning line favorite, while Skippylongstocking is 3-1. Doppelganger is 6-1.

Trainer Brittany Russell will send out Doppelganger, winner of the Carter Handicap (G1) at Aqueduct this past April. The four-year-old son of top sire Into Mischief is coming off a win in the Battery Park Stakes at Delaware Park. Russell also took advantage of her stable’s proximity to Charles Town to get Doppelganger a work over the track and under the lights, which can be a variable for many runners racing at Charles Town for the first time. Working between races last Thursday, Doppelganger was credited with a half mile in :46.60 seconds, and a robust gallop out in :59.40, indicating his readiness for Friday’s contest. 

While Doppelganger has the lone North American Grade 1 victory in this year’s field, Skippylongstocking may attract more attention at the betting windows in this year’s Classic. The 4-year-old son of Exaggerator has consistently kept good company in his races, with the Classic set to mark his 11th consecutive start in graded stakes company. Three of those graded starts, including one in last year’s Grade 3 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park, have netted him victories.

“He’s a hard-knocking horse that tries really hard every time,” said trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. “He danced in a lot of the big dances as a 3-year-old, you know, the Preakness (G1), the Belmont (G1), and then the West Virginia Derby (G3). So we know he likes it in West Virginia and hopefully he can pull off the double with the Charles Town Classic.” 

Joseph will also send out O’Connor (8-1), who achieved Group 1-winning status in his native Chile. While he has yet to win a graded stake Stateside, Joseph feels his charge is rounding back into form at the right time. 

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“O’Connor was coming off a layoff last time out and he missed some training, so he probably needed that one,” said Joseph of his horse’s third place finish in the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes (G3). “We think he’s coming into this one in much better shape and I think we’ll see an improved effort.” 

Giant Game took the field gate-to-wire in the Cornhusker Handicap (G3) two races back, defeating two Classic entrants in Skippylongstocking and Call Me Fast. The improving son of Giant’s Causeway for trainer Dale Romans followed up that effort with a fifth-place finish in the Whitney Stakes (G1) at Saratoga, which saw him lead to the midway point of the far turn before tiring. Giant Game projects to be the pacesetter in this year’s Classic, with Martin Garcia named to ride. 

Call Me Fast was another late addition to this year’s Classic field, with his connections choosing to supplement the gelded son of Dialed In to the race. Call Me Fast exits four consecutive tries against Grade 3 company. 

“He’s been keeping pretty good company lately so this was a logical spot,” said trainer Mike Puhich. “I thought he ran a credible race at Prairie Meadows [in the Cornhusker Handicap (G3)], and showed he deserved a shot at the $1 million.” 

Call Me Fast will have the services of Joe Talamo in the irons, and will also be putting blinkers back on for the Classic. 

“We took the blinkers off before the Ben Ali (G3) at Keeneland to teach him how to settle, and he definitely did. But we’re putting them back on for this race so that hopefully he’ll put himself into the race a little earlier. But he’s versatile. And he’s breezed on a six-furlong track before his first start and he just rattled around the turns, so I don’t see that being an issue.” 

The Classic is carded as the 11th of 13 races. With the card kicking off at 5:00 p.m., projected post for the Classic is 10:25.