Dark Vader faces large, evenly matched field in Cornhusker

The 11 horses entered in Friday night’s Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap are like stalks of corn lined up on a prairie farm, little distinguishing one from the others.

The racing secretary at Prairie Meadows seems to have it right: The low horse in the weights, Popularity, starts at 114 pounds, with the highweighted Sir Anthony toting just 119. Somewhere in between those boundaries probably is planted the winner of this Grade 3, $300,000 race, contested over 1 1/8 miles of Iowa dirt, the last of four stakes on the Friday card.

Maybe the winner will come from the West. California shipper Dark Vader makes just the second start of his 4-year-old season and should improve from the first one. An Ohio-bred Tale of Ekati colt trained by Peter Eurton – whose first Prairie Meadows runner, Cool Bobby, went unplaced in the 2018 Iowa Derby – Dark Vader at age 3 shipped to Sunland Park, Belmont Park, and Indiana Grand. He hit a peak at Belmont last June, finishing a close third in the Easy Goer Stakes, but by the time Dark Vader ran fifth in the Indiana Derby, he’d had enough of the traveling.

“He did a lot of nice things last year, but he got a little sour and tired toward the end of it,” Eurton said.

Dark Vader had no physical issues of consequence, but got a lengthy break between the Indiana Derby and a close second-place finish May 24 in a second-level one-mile allowance race at Santa Anita, where he endured a tricky stop-and-start trip. Eurton recently worked Dark Vader, the mount of Rafael Bejarano, with two of his best dirt horses, New Orleans Handicap winner Core Beliefs and Draft Pick. “He’s been giving them all they can handle,” Eurton said.

Another California horse, Two Thirty Five, was third behind Dark Vader last out, but the 5-year-old proved no match for his younger rival on the day and has less room to come forward Friday.

Exulting and Exclamation Point finished one-two in the first running of the $250,000 Oaklawn Mile on May 3. Exulting returned to get waxed in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster Handicap, while trainer Brad Cox elected to await this spot with Exclamation Point.

“There wasn’t a lot of options, so we gave him some time, and he’s responded well,” said Cox. “The mile and an eighth, I think it’s a positive. His half-brother [Classic Empire] won the Preakness.”

It might be a mistake to forget Remembering Rita, who scored a 19-1 upset in this race a year ago. Remembering Rita finished fourth, beaten less than a length, in the Oaklawn Handicap two starts back, and while he was upset by Cornhusker starter Chris and Dave in a local prep for Friday’s race, Remembering Rita could bounce back.

Trainer Steve Asmussen, a two-time Cornhusker winner, entered Hence and Retirement Fund. Hence’s form this year has been poor, but Retirement Fund finally followed through on early promise with a comfortable second-level allowance win last out at Churchill.

“He’s maybe got a little confidence back,” Asmussen said.

Chicago shipper Sir Anthony will have Flavien Prat in the saddle for the first time, and his solid second behind subsequent Brooklyn Invitational winner Marconi in the Skip Away Stakes at Gulfstream Park and a win there in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday suggest he could win – as could many in this closely matched Cornhusker.