Publisher draws attention in Thursday maiden race

Sure, there’s an appealing allowance feature on the Churchill Downs Thursday card, but top billing goes to an appearance by North America’s best-known maiden.

And the remarkable thing is that Publisher actually runs in a maiden race.

Third or second in his first four starts, all maiden races, Publisher in his fifth outing jumped into graded-stakes competition and has not left since. A tough-trip seventh in the Southwest Stakes in January, Publisher was fourth in the Rebel, second in the Arkansas Derby, 14th in the Kentucky Derby, fourth in the Indiana Derby, and, most recently, fourth in the Oklahoma Derby. Publisher hasn’t visited the winner’s circle, but he has banked almost $400,000 for his connections this season, and he’s the 6-5 morning-line favorite in Thursday’s second race, a 1 1/16-mile contest with a $120,000 purse.

:: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now.

As for the featured ninth, it’s a second-level allowance carded for six furlongs on dirt and open to $80,000 claimers, and among the nine entrants is One Nine Hundred, who shipped all the way from trainer Tom Morley’s base at Belmont Park. Morley hopes to get 3-year-old One Nine Hundred into the New York sprint-stakes program this winter and didn’t want to wait for a local allowance to fill.

One Nine Hundred, a sharp maiden winner March 29, scored a flashy first-level allowance victory – albeit over just four foes – on July 5 at Saratoga but hasn’t raced since. Morley, not wholly pleased with the colt’s training, sent One Nine Hundred on a 30-day freshening at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland and said One Nine Hundred came back a more relaxed animal.

“We’re now seeing fast works but done the right way, and I think he’s mentally a lot more mature than he was in the spring into the summer,” Morely said.

One Nine Hundred breaks from the far outside post, but still faces a potentially compromising pace scenario among several established front-runners. If the race plays out as it appears on paper, another 3-year-old, Keep It Easy, could take advantage. Keep It Easy has excuses for two bad losses earlier this year, missed by a neck at this class level at Keeneland in October, and about this time last year easily won the Ed Brown Stakes over the Churchill main track.

- Additional reporting from David Grening

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.