It was a humbling evening for some highly regarded horses at Churchill Downs Saturday night. Ax Man, who appeared poised to pick up many of the not-so-insignificant crumbs rejected by Triple Crown winner Justify the second half of this season in the 3-year-old division, started the trend with an empty performance at 1-2 in the Matt Winn. World Approval, last year’s champion male turf horse, kept the negative roll going with an equally empty effort at even money in the Wise Dan. And then Backyard Heaven and Irish War Cry, who both looked primed to be major players in the Older Dirt Male division after big stakes wins last month, instead went in the opposite direction with – you guessed it – empty showings as the first two favorites in the big race of the day, the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap. The silver lining here – at least in terms of the Foster – is Pavel, who, even if he capitalized on the no-shows by Backyard Heaven and Irish War Cry, still definitely has a license to stick as a player in the handicap division. Pavel showed all sorts of potential last year. I mean, he was involved in a show photo with Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Preakness winner Cloud Computing in the Jim Dandy Stakes last summer at Saratoga in, get this, only his second career start off of just a maiden win sprinting. And while Pavel’s Jim Dandy might have a less favorable look now given the subsequent career arcs of Always Dreaming and Cloud Computing, what Pavel did in that race under the circumstances was, at the time, fairly jaw-dropping. Two races later, on the heels of a strong score in the Smarty Jones and in only his fourth career start, Pavel turned in another eye-opening performance, finishing a terrific third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup behind the far more seasoned Diversify and Keen Ice. And he did that after engaging in a bumping match with Keen Ice down the stretch. Pavel was then subjected to an even more unmerciful schedule. He ran in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was shorted up to seven furlongs in the Malibu, was stretched back out to 1 1/8 miles in the San Pasqual, was sent halfway around the world for the Dubai World Cup, and then re-emerged in the 10-furlong Gold Cup at Santa Anita. Pavel finished fourth in the last three of those events, but was a victim of extenuating circumstances. He had no shot in the San Pasqual given how long and badly blocked he was, he might have raced against an inside speed-biased track in Dubai, and he had a right to need the outing in the Gold Cup. In other words, if Pavel hadn’t suffered any ill effects from being repeatedly spotted so high, he had a real chance in the Foster, whether or not Backyard Heaven and Irish War Cry showed up. This was, frankly, his softest assignment in quite some time. And Pavel showed that no darn racing schedule, no matter how demanding, had gotten the best of him as he drew off powerfully after inhaling the leaders into the stretch. It really does look like Pavel, who is back in triple-digit Beyer Figure territory with a preliminary 101 for the Foster, is on his way now. I know we said that mere weeks ago about Backyard Heaven and Irish War Cry. But Pavel has more than once flashed signs that he can do special stuff, and I think he’s going to be a fun horse to follow the rest of the year. As for Backyard Heaven, the optimistic view is maybe he ran back too soon after his big score in the Alysheba six weeks ago over the same Churchill Downs main track. Still, the fact that he moved up to unheralded longshot pacesetter Uncle Mojo on the far turn and never went by him as both gave way through the stretch was disappointing. Irish War Cry, meanwhile, completely dropped anchor going into the far turn. This is not the first time he’s done something like this. He did it last year in the Fountain of Youth, Kentucky Derby, and Pennsylvania Derby, and again this year in the Gulfstream Park Mile, although not quite as badly as Saturday night when he was pulled up outright. Irish Way Cry has obvious talent and looked so good winning last month’s Pimlico Special, but he once again failed to put two really good efforts together, and it has become difficult to put any trust in him. World Approval won his Eclipse Award last year on the strength of consecutive Grade 1 victories in the Fourstardave, Woodbine Mile, and Breeders’ Cup Mile. But for whatever reason, and no compelling reason has yet surfaced, he simply has not looked like the same horse this year. He had to work hard to win the Tampa Bay Stakes in his 2018 debut, though the thinking then was he was merely prepping for bigger races and would show more in those bigger races. As it turned out, he had nothing to offer when fifth of eight in the subsequent Kilroe Mile, and the story was the same in the Wise Dan, a race which going in had the scent of being more a confidence builder for World Approval than a real goal on its own. In his defense, World Approval was bumped from both sides out of the gate and did appear to be in tight in the run to the first turn. That is not nearly enough of an excuse, however, as World Approval’s trip was still fine overall, and yet you could clearly see before leaving the far turn that he was in deep water. Mr. Misunderstood notched the biggest victory of his career in the Wise Dan, but without taking anything away from him, the one I would want out of this race is Divisidero. Divisidero checked on the inside late on the backstretch and into the far turn, angled widest of all in upper stretch, and finished willingly to be beaten less than a length for it all while going a 1 1/16-mile distance that is shorter than what he has always preferred. Ax Man, who looked Grade 1 stakes-bound winning the Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness undercard, earning a Beyer two points higher than Justify’s 97 in the Preakness, ran the worst race of his still young career in the Matt Winn. At least when he stopped as the 2-5 favorite in the San Vicente in his second start and only other loss, he was involved in an insane early speed duel. That was not the case Saturday. Ax Man pressed a downright slow early pace set by Tiz Mischief, who had been badly beaten in all of his starts this year, and not only did Ax Man fail to ever get by him, he actually had fallen eight lengths behind Tiz Mischief by the time the wire arrived. In the meantime, King Zachary looped the pacesetters and drew off to a strong, near five-length Winn win. Now, even though King Zachary won his last two starts at the overnight level, I’m not exactly sure where this performance came from as he was badly beaten in the Wood Memorial in his only prior stakes attempt, and had never before cracked so much as the 80 Beyer barrier. But King Zachary got a preliminary Beyer of 98 for the Winn, and if he has improved to the point where that is his new area of operation, he’ll win more races than just the Winn.