The trainer Brad Cox has gotten onto one of his Churchill Downs rolls. He’s won with four of his last six starters at the meet, pulling into a tie with Joe Sharp atop the trainer standings with 15 wins each. Cox has two chances to win the featured eighth race Wednesday at Churchill. Two, though, might not be enough – not with Bullard to beat in this one-turn dirt mile, a second-level allowance with an $80,000 claiming option. The race drew 10 entrants, and Bullard, with Florent Geroux riding for trainer Michael McCarthy, drew post 9. That might seem like a wide draw, but Bullard in his most recent race, a May 2 contest at the same class level and distance, broke from the 14-hole. He ran a winning race, too, stalking the pace, moving between horses and into serious contention, but in the end came out second best. Three lengths ahead of Bullard came Vibe, who had won two in a row for trainer Todd Pletcher and trained into the May 2 start like a horse on a mission. Vibe ran to those breezes and ran out a good winner, Bullard came home a half-length in front of the burly Ohio-bred Who Dey. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Who Dey returned May 30 and finished second by a half-length in the Grade 3 Blame Stakes, and even the pair of Cox-trained runners can’t match the form of the horses who bookended Bullard last out. And it is not that one race that recommends Bullard, 3-1 on the track’s morning line: Bullard, in his second career start way back in November 2024, won the Grade 3 Bob Hope over 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar by 4 3/4 lengths. John Hancock and Rothko come out of the Cox barn, each with a chance, both with questions to answer. John Hancock’s second career start yielded a win in the Sam Davis Stakes two winters ago at Tampa Bay Downs, his third race a fading fourth going 1 3/16 miles in the Louisiana Derby. Start number four did not come for more than 13 months. John Hancock jumped out to an early lead in the same race as Bullard, got hooked partway through, and faded through the homestretch to finish a soundly beaten sixth. Connections already had attempted a comeback run at the Keeneland meet in April, but regulatory veterinarians deemed John Hancock unsuited for racing and scratched him. John Hancock in theory should benefit from his comeback race, but how much upside does he possess with a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 87? John Hancock has been the first-call leader in all four of his starts and probably has more natural speed than Cox’s second entrant, Rothko. The morning line has John Hancock set too high at 10-1 and Rothko too low at 2-1, the latter having found soft spots for both a Fair Grounds maiden win and a Keeneland first-level allowance score. Both races were contested around two turns, and neither against the horse named Bullard. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.