Returning Proxy will try to realize potential he flashed at 3

Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon race Saturday in the $20 million Saudi Cup. Friday in New Orleans, a colt who beat both of them last year makes his 4-year-old debut in the feature race at Fair Grounds.

Proxy, a Godolphin homebred trained by Michael Stidham, makes his first start since April when he takes on a surprisingly large group of rivals in the last of nine races. This second-level dirt-route allowance race, carded for 1 1/16 miles and also open to $40,000 claimers, lured 11 entrants.

Proxy, by Tapit out of the Include mare Panty Raid, finished second, a head in front of Mandaloun in the 2021 Lecomte Stakes, and second a month later in the Risen Star, with Midnight Bourbon checking in right behind him.

Stidham tried blinkers for the Louisiana Derby, but they didn’t do much and Proxy finished an even fourth. The colt was over the top when he finished a well-beaten fourth April 10 in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. Stidham said Proxy tailed off due to bruising in a cannon bone, an issue for which he was given plenty of time off.

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Proxy didn’t race especially professionally at age 3, when there always seemed to be more fuel in his tank than he was able to access, and maturity should be the friend of this colt. Proxy had the first work of his comeback on Jan. 4 and since has kept to a steady pattern, finishing off his sequence of drills with a bullet five furlongs in 59.20 seconds on Feb. 19.

“The work the other day was faster than planned, though I think the track was souped up a little,” Stidham said. “He did it very smooth without urging. His last couple works have been real good.”

Blinkers come off for Friday’s start, with Stidham believing they didn’t move Proxy forward at all. “I didn’t see any real benefit,” he said.

Proxy, 9-5 on the track’s morning line, breaks from post 7 and will have Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard for the first time.

Stidham has a second entrant in Guillaume, who cleared his first allowance condition Dec. 12 at Fair Grounds while racing for the first time in blinkers. He doesn’t have Proxy’s talent but obviously possesses a recency edge.

Also entered are the five horses who started in a race like this on Jan. 27, won wire to wire by Warrior in Chief.

Warrior in Chief won’t get the same clear lead that helped him last time. Treasury, one of Warrior in Chief’s pace rivals on Friday, benefited from an inside-speed biased surface when he won a first-level allowance race last month.