Hit Show tunes up for Dubai in Mineshaft Stakes

For a horse that has won nearly half of his starts – including eight stakes – and has banked nearly $9 million, Hit Show doesn’t get a lot of buzz.

With an eye toward a repeat bid in the $12 million Dubai World Cup next month, Hit Show kicks off his 6-year-old campaign in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Mineshaft Stakes at Fair Grounds, where handicappers may look to a few up-and-comers to try and beat him.

Hit Show has won 11 of 23 starts and has banked $8.9 million. He is coming off a runner-up finish to Magnitude in the Grade 2 Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs last November. In 2025, Hit Show won the Grade 3 Louisiana at Fair Grounds two months after he finished third (disqualified to fifth) in the 2024 Clark.

Hit Show got a bit of a break following his eight-race campaign in 2025 and has worked five times at Payson Park for trainer Brad Cox.

“I think maybe you want to have one more work, but he ran all last year so he’s pretty fit,” said Blake Cox, son of and assistant to his father. “If he gets there, he gets there, but the goal is the Dubai World Cup. We don’t have to win Saturday – you’d like to win – but the goal is Dubai.”

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Florent Geroux, aboard Hit Show for his Dubai World Cup win, is reunited with Hit Show after Irad Ortiz Jr. rode him in his previous two starts.

Accelerize and Time to Win are up-and-comers in the older male dirt division but have more to prove.

Accelerize, trained by Todd Pletcher, has won 3 of 4 starts and was a front-running winner of the Grade 3 Louisiana Stakes on Jan. 17. That race, like this one, was run at 1 1/16 miles.

“He’s a pretty push-button kind of horse in the morning,” Pletcher said. “I think he’s a talented horse. We weren’t surprised – the way he broke his maiden we knew he was capable of winning a graded stake. Now, he needs to keep improving to get to the Grade 1 level.”

Flavien Prat rode Accelerize in the Louisiana Stakes, but he’s in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. John Velazquez will ride Accelerize from post 2.

It took Time to Win four tries to get his first victory, but after winning a one-mile maiden race on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct he came back with a first-level allowance win on Jan. 17 at Gulfstream Park. This will be his first time racing beyond a mile and first try going two turns.

“He trains like a real horse,” trainer Chad Brown said. “I’m so surprised it took him so long to break his maiden He ran into some tough horses, he had that one blinkers experiment” – a third-place finish behind Life and Times on Nov. 11 at Aqueduct – “that didn’t work.

“This is an up-and-coming horse. I’m hoping it’s fresh legs against some old salty dogs who might be on the other side of the mountain.”

Tyler Gaffalione rides Time to Win from post 5.

Duke of Duval, trained by Steve Asmussen, makes his stakes debut after a second-level allowance win on Dec. 28 at Oaklawn Park. He shows a series of strong workouts at Fair Grounds leading up to this.

Cadet Corps, cross-entered in the Post Time Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park, will stay in the Mineshaft, trainer Kelly Breen said. Cadet Corps was a closing third to Accelerize, beaten a half-length, in the Louisiana Stakes at odds of 36-1.

Moonlight, who has a history of running a good race after a bad one for trainer Chris Block, comes off a sixth-place finish in the Louisiana.

Stowaway is only 2 for 17 but is coming off a third in the Tenacious Stakes at Fair Grounds, a performance for which he earned a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure.

– additional reporting by Marcus Hersh

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