BALTIMORE, Md. - Regardless of the weather or surface, things work out okay for Tap Daddy. The colt cruised to a victory as Preakness Day undercard stakes action kicked off with the $100,000 James Murphy Stakes for 3-year-olds.

The Murphy, originally carded for a mile on turf, was moved to 1 1/16 miles on the sloppy main track. The majority of the scheduled turf races Saturday at Pimlico were similarly affected, with only the Grade 3 Gallorette Stakes remaining on the turf at the time of this writing.

Tap Daddy finished third, beaten just a head, in the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes last October at Keeneland, a race also taken off the turf. This was the first career stakes victory for the Scat Daddy colt, a Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred trained by Steve Asmussen. This was the second joint stakes victory of the weekend for Asmussen and jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr., who took Friday's Skipat Stakes with Vertical Oak.

Tap Daddy ($5.80) was away alertly from post 3 and sat kindly in han, even with California Night off his flank, while controlling the tempo early. He repelled that challenger around the far turn and continued on strongly in the stretch under steady urging from Santana, hitting the wire 6 1/2 lengths in front. He finished the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.67.

Threes Over Deuces rallied to surpass Takedown by 1 1/4 lengths for second.

More to follow at DRF.com.