You will never find Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox driving a horse van ferrying a Godolphin runner to a graded stakes race. But on Wednesday morning, trainer Mike Dini was rolling down the highway hauling a gelding named Straight Arrow into battle with First Mission, a Godolphin colt trained by Cox who will be favored to win the Grade 2, $600,000 Clark Stakes on Friday at Churchill Downs. First Mission is 3-1 on Churchill’s morning line for the Clark but will go to post considerably shorter than that. He has not yet run as fast as several of his rivals and makes his first stakes start against older horses, and while First Mission has the makings of a star, bettors will be taking the worst of things backing him in the 1 1/8-mile Clark. That means all the value accrues to a horse like Straight Arrow, who earned the highest Beyer Speed Figure among the Clark’s 10 entrants, a 101, when he beat New York-bred allowance rivals two starts ago. Straight Arrow went from that one-turn mile to the 1 1/8-mile Empire Classic on Oct. 29 and won that easily, too, with a 95 Beyer. “We don’t know how good he is yet,” said Dini, who for decades has run a horse-shipping business alongside his training operation. “We’ll find out what he’s made of.” :: DRF's Black Friday Sale: Get 20% off (almost) everything in the DRF Shop. Code: BF2023 The same can be said of First Mission. A homebred by Street Sense, First Mission has started his career with three wins and a second-place finish to talented stablemate Bishops Bay in their common sprint debut last winter at Fair Grounds. First Mission is 3 for 3 in routes and while he has yet to race beyond 1 1/16 miles, the colt, a physical force, has the look of a nine- or 10-furlong runner who has only scraped the surface of his raw ability. If he performs to expectations, First Mission could be a horse for the Pegasus World Cup and the Dubai World Cup in 2024. “We need to see it and we want to see it,” said Cox. First Mission won the Lexington in April making his stakes debut and would’ve been among the favorites for the Preakness Stakes, but he was scratched 36 hours before the race and didn’t run again until Oct. 14. Cox brought First Mission back in a second-level Keeneland allowance race at 1 1/16 miles. First Mission and Luis Saez spent much of that journey trapped inside and behind horses. Saez, hopelessly blocked, eventually wheeled to the far outside after turning for home. The race ended at the sixteenth pole and First Mission, at heart, is a big, strong galloping-type horse, but he still was handy enough to cross behind heels and kick home to win. “I told Luis to continue to educate him a little bit. I thought he got a lot out of that from a fitness and education standpoint,” Cox said. Cox laughed when asked if he ever works First Mission in company. “Doesn’t need it!” Indeed, First Mission has been tearing past the wire, out around the clubhouse turn, and down the backstretch in his breezes since the comeback run. The farther he goes the faster and smoother he runs. “I expect him to stay on,” said Cox. Dini shipped Straight Arrow from Tampa Bay Downs, where the 4-year-old has been based since shortly after the Empire Classic. Straight Arrow, by Arrogate, didn’t debut until this past June. His owner, Laura Barrish, bought the unraced horse at auction for a mere $30,000 last November. “He wouldn’t train. I had him for two weeks at Tampa and the outriders told me to get him out of there,” Dini said. Dini sent Straight Arrow to a farm where former trainer Chad Stewart rebroke him. The gelding still has his quirks but has steadily improved his behavior, and while he tackles the toughest competition of his career, Straight Arrow has made but one start in a two-turn dirt race, which seems to be his calling. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Il Miracolo makes his 16th start without a break from racing and almost certainly can’t do better than his second-place finish behind O’Connor last month in the Fayette at Keeneland, and that performance isn’t good enough to win. Film Star ships from New York for trainer Linda Rice with solid credentials, while Stage Raider’s dud in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile is best ignored. The other especially interesting entrant, however, is Gasoline, who already has two Churchill wins this fall. Trained by Todd Pletcher, he returns 20 days after turning in the race of his life, beating fellow Clark entrant Giant Game by more than five lengths in a third-level allowance. Trademark, Happy American, and Blue Devil round out the field. Post time for the Clark, race 11 of 12, is set for 5:48 p.m. Central. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.