Annapolis is a small city in Maryland, but the 4-year-old colt named after the place was bred in Kentucky, and that could be worth a pretty penny. Annapolis is one of a dozen entered in the one-mile Mint Millions on Saturday at all-turf Kentucky Downs. The Grade 3 race has a base purse of $1 million with another $1 million available to Kentucky-breds. There are 10 of those entered along with Ireland-bred Dhabab and Florida-bred Max K. O. The field, top to bottom, doesn’t measure up to its purse, and if Annapolis produces his standard performance, he’s a likely winner. There’s nothing standard, however, about Kentucky Downs. One-mile races start on the backstretch, the horses going through an uphill section into a right-handed dogleg before turning left and heading downhill. The homestretch has an uphill portion before one final little bend leads to the finish. Annapolis has never encountered anything like it. Annapolis, trained for Bass Racing by Todd Pletcher, has started at five different tracks and carried his form to various venues. With a 6-4-0 record in an 11-start career, he has disappointed only twice, when soundly defeated in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Mile, and when he failed to cope with a boggy course finishing second in the 2022 Penn Mile. Annapolis has pace and stamina to go beyond one mile; that will suit a race that plays longer than its raw distance. And while he comes off a pair of second-place finishes, Annapolis was defeated both times by Casa Creed, a true Grade 1 performer. The second of those losses, where Annapolis fought hard and fell short, came Aug. 12 at Saratoga. That means Annapolis runs back on three weeks’ rest, and he has always had at least four weeks between races. It’s also an open question how a powerfully built horse like Annapolis handles this quirky course, and Pletcher over the last five years has gone 15-2-4-1 at Kentucky Downs. The two winners came in 2018 and 2019, when Channel Cat and Social Paranoia landed consecutive renewals of the Dueling Grounds Derby. Irad Ortiz Jr. has ridden Annapolis in all his races but stays at Saratoga on Saturday, leaving the ride to Tyler Gaffalione. Annapolis breaks from post 10 and will be in the 6-5 range. :: Download a free copy of Daily Racing Form's 2023 Kentucky Downs Player's Guide Annapolis and Atone are the race’s only Grade 1 winners, and Atone has been off form since winning the Pegasus World Cup Turf in January. He exits a flat 11th-place finish Aug. 11 in the Arlington Million. That leaves Churchtown as the most likely winner if Annapolis falters. Churchtown finished second by a head to Annapolis in the Opening Verse this past May at Churchill Downs and didn’t start again until July 23, when he was fourth with a dreadful trip in the Connaught Cup at Woodbine, trainer Roger Attfield’s summer base. Typically on the lead or pressing, Churchtown was seventh in the early stages before getting roughed up in heavy stretch traffic. “The whole thing was kind of a mess,” Attfield set. “It was all miscalculated.” Still, Churchtown got in his prep for this rich spot and has come back with strong work, especially his turf breeze Aug. 27, timed in a blazing 58.60 seconds. “It was an excellent work, and he came out of it really, really well,” said Attfield, who never has started a horse at Kentucky Downs. “He’s on his game. The course is an unknown factor, but he’s a very athletic, tidy little horse.” Julien Leparoux rides Churchtown, whom Attfield said runs best with a target. Atone and Stitched are potential leaders from inside draws. Stitched can’t be ruled out, though his speed figures look light. The 4-year-old won the Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes at odds of 46-1 in his most recent start and still has room to improve. :: Bet the races with a $250 First Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. No horse travels farther for this start than Ancient Rome, who ships from England for trainer Charlie Hills. Andre Fabre trained Ancient Rome for his first 14 starts before Hills got the 4-year-old this summer. Nearly a Group 1 winner at 2 and a close fourth in the French Guineas in spring 2022, Ancient Rome failed to progress much over the last 15 months. He does exit the highest-rated performance of his career, a Class 2 handicap win at Goodwood, where Ancient Rome beat 14 rivals going last to first racing 1 1/4 miles over soft going. The race marked a change in tactics; Ancient Rome previously had been ridden closer to the pace, and Jamie Spencer, aboard at Goodwood, is named to ride. Smokin’ T is an improving 4-year-old, but his first stakes win came by a narrow margin in restricted competition Aug. 5. Gray’s Fable has a trouble line from his lone Kentucky Downs start a year ago but looked unbalanced throughout that race. Get Her Number was 13th in his most recent grass race, which came in April 2022, while Dhabab and Max K. O. are legitimate 30-1 shots on the morning line. Post time for the Mint Millions, which follows the Gun Runner and Music City Stakes as race 10, is 5:28 p.m. Central. The course should be firm with the temporary rail set at 40 feet. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.