Hieronymus was rained out of his best chance when he traveled from Kentucky to Minnesota last month, but Wednesday night he should get his preferred surface, turf, in the $100,000 Mystic Lake Mile. Trainer Brad Cox shipped Hieronymus from Churchill to Canterbury for the Brooks Fields Stakes on May 27, but that turf race – and all the others on the card – were rained onto dirt. Hieronymus dueled and faded to third, not a bad performance considering this is a grass horse, but the forecast this week strongly suggests Wednesday night’s grass races will be run on a firm course. The proper surface all but assured, Hieronymus and Florent Geroux must work out a decent trip, no small feat as an outside-drawn pace horse in a race packed with other speed. A four-time turf winner, Hieronymus has the proven talent to win the Mystic Lake Mile, but he has never passed a horse during the second part of any of his races and will be vulnerable if forced to go too hard during the early and middle stages. That could happen if Cinco Star and Tut’s Revenge, both quick through the first quarter-mile, are bent on leading, but if Geroux presses forward into the first turn, he might wind up in the clear, if not on a clear lead, racing down the backstretch. An intemperate tempo could yield a longer-priced winner if Parlor can’t regain his better form. Trained by Mike Maker, Parlor, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, nearly pulled off a mammoth upset last July when narrowly beaten in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland, but his form since has slipped. He ended his 2020 campaign with a flat run and started his 2021 season last month at Churchill with something similarly uninspired, leaving other stalkers and closers as more appealing options. :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. Summer Assault, in from Chicago for trainer Michele Boyce, should slot in just behind the front-runners and won the Mystic Lake Derby over the Canterbury course last summer. Giant Payday finished strongly for second in the 2020 Mystic Lake Mile, and while he might be on the downside of his career at age 7, don’t ignore 6-year-old Sonny Smack. Sonny Smack was claimed in April by trainer Robertino Diodoro and first time out for new connections sharply won a Canterbury turf allowance race. He has but two career turf starts and Diodoro’s stable has been humming this Minnesota season. Lady Canterbury In the space of two months, Lady Lawyer has moved her training base from Belmont to Fair Hill in Maryland to Arlington International. Now she ships to Canterbury with a chance to notch her first stakes win when she starts in the $100,000 Lady Canterbury Stakes. Initially trained in England by John Gosden, Lady Lawyer made her first six North American starts for trainer Chad Brown but was transferred from Brown to trainer Mike Stidham after her 2021 debut. Stidham worked her once at Fair Hill before sending the 5-year-old mare on to Arlington with thoughts of starting her in the Chicago Stakes, a seven-furlong Polytrack race, “That looked like it was coming up really tough, so we sidestepped to Canterbury to see what that looked like, and it’s a better spot,” Stidham said. “She’s been training very well.” Lady Lawyer, a daughter of Blame, has started in one-turn races much of her career but did beat third-level allowance horses going a two-turn turf mile last year at Keeneland. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Evil Lyn is the likely favorite here for Maker and jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., but she is a late-running filly with little upside at this point in her career and figures to be overbet. Princess Causeway had a limited 2020 campaign, but her best 2019 grass form gets her into the mix for trainer Ian Wilkes. Dark Star Turf Sprint The $100,000 Dark Star Turf Sprint is a race crying out for a closer. Alas, there are none among the entries. This eight-horse field is absolutely loaded with pace players, and even racing just five furlongs over a course often kind to speed, the front-runners should be flagging in deep stretch. Wellabled, who won the Honor the Hero Stakes over the Canterbury course last summer, ran below his top form in his 2021 debut but has an outside draw that could serve him well and he might be the most likely to emerge from a duel. The pick though is rail-drawn High Crime, who ends a one-race experiment with blinkers and has shown just enough willingness to rate that he might wind up getting a very favorable trip. ◗ The Brad Cox-trained Saranya will be a short price in the $100,000 Curtis Sampson Oaks, but should get an ideal trip closing into a strong pace and simply looks better than her eight rivals in this one-mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies.