Hit Show back in Kentucky after finding another gear

LEXINGTON, Ky. – When Hit Show turned for home with a decent position this past Saturday in the Dubai World Cup, his trainer, Brad Cox, was watching from Kentucky. Good, Cox thought, the horse will grind his way to a rich placing.

Hit Show, previously only a Grade 2 winner, did more than that, hitting a gear Cox didn’t know he had to run down Mixto and win the $12 million World Cup.

“He’s never run like that before,” Cox said Sunday at Keeneland.

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Hit Show returns to Kentucky this week to quarantine on the Churchill Downs backstretch. Cox said he plans to go forward with the horse unless Hit Show, a stout specimen, comes home more worn out than Cox anticipates. Hit Show earned a fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Classic with his Dubai win and obviously will be pointed toward that race.

◗ Nine 3-year-olds are entered in Saturday’s Lexington Stakes, the last stop on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby, but fewer will run. At press time Monday, Rolando was set to start later in the afternoon in the Lafayette Stakes. Touchy and Bracket Buster both are entered in a Wednesday allowance race here. Heading the field are Bullard, who ships from California; Hypnus, a disappointing seventh March 22 in the Louisiana Derby; and Praetor, an easy Gulfstream allowance winner last out.

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