Dunph can build on latest in Cornhusker

It’s hard to say what got into Dunph when he last raced May 2 at Oaklawn Park, but it’s easy to say that if Dunph can replicate that performance, he can win the Grade 3, $100,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap on Sunday at Prairie Meadows.

Dunph should be forwardly placed and can fall into a good pressing trip with a decent break for trainer Robertino Diodoro and owner Richard Davis. Diodoro and Davis claimed Dunph for $30,000 on April 10 and on May 2 got a sensational performance from the 4-year-old gelding, who stalked the pace outside in a two-turn allowance race before blasting home to a 2 1/2-length victory with a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure. The race’s runner-up, Fearless, returned to win a second-level, dirt-route allowance race at Churchill with a 94 Beyer.

Dunph, though he has a route-leaning pedigree, had mainly been racing one turn before the claim and perhaps as much as anything the stretch back to a route distance suited him. Diodoro, over the last five years, has four winners from 20 dirt-route graded stakes, and Dunph could boost his $3.30 return on investment in the category with a Cornhusker victory.

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Dunph, with David Cohen named to ride, drew the outside post in a race that attracted nine entrants. Dunph has pace to get position before the first of two turns comes up in this 1 1/8-mile contest, and the race seems open to a sharp class-riser like Dunph. There are no real heavy hitters in the group, and the top-weighted horse, Night Ops, carries just 119 pounds. Dunph was assigned 114 pounds for his first try in a nine-furlong dirt race.

Among the Cornhusker entrants is Sir Anthony, who won this race by a neck last year at odds of 8-1. Sir Anthony hasn’t visited the winner’s circle since and where he was in the midst of a solid form cycle going into the 2019 Cornhusker, Sunday’s start marks his first since March 28 and just his second since November. Sir Anthony has been based at Aiken, S.C., with trainer Tony Mitchell preparing for this comeback run.

Night Ops, trained by Brad Cox, gets a class drop Sunday and is a logical win contender as the likely favorite under Martin Garcia, who never has ridden the 4-year-old colt. Night Ops did finish a flat fifth as the 9-5 favorite in the 2019 Iowa Derby and is 0 for 3 going 1 1/8 miles, but he was in too tough last out in the Oaklawn Handicap, breaking from a tough post, 13.

Rated R Superstar and My Sixth Sense exit a strong Churchill Downs allowance race in which neither horse contended, but My Sixth Sense, 1 for 1 at nine furlongs, drew the rail and should show speed in a race lacking pace.

The Cornhusker and all the other stakes in the Iowa Festival of Racing got a purse haircut after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Prairie Meadows and its casino for part of March, all of April, and a portion of May. The Cornhusker, race 10 of 11, shares the Sunday card with the Iowa Derby, the Iowa Oaks, and the Iowa Sprint. First post for the program is 5 p.m. Central.