No idea what to expect Saturday when Sovereignty returns from an eight-month layoff in the Oaklawn Handicap. I do know that as 2025 wore on, I started strongly believing we were looking at the evolution of a truly great horse.We also know Sovereignty is generally a disinterested work horse. He was getting outworked before the Fountain of Youth 13 months ago, and Sovereignty’s works this winter and spring look about the same. To win the Fountain of Youth, Sovereignty only had to beat River Thames. Journalism and White Abarrio, maybe even Publisher, pose a much sterner challenge.Sovereignty coming out of the Kentucky Derby was not a disinterested work horse. At some point in every drill, he flashed his capacious talent, even if only for a few strides. I haven’t seen that in the available breeze video this year. I hope Sovereignty comes back this year the same horse he went out last year, but I couldn’t bet on or against it.ElkhornFourth behind Sovereignty in the Fountain of Youth, a troubled sixth behind him in the Derby came Burnham Square. Burnham Square won the Grade 1 Blue Grass and hit a very high level on dirt, but his best race came when trainer Ian Wilkes moved the gelding to turf.Forget about Wimbledon Hawkeye’s flop in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He came to Kentucky Downs among the better European 10- to 12-furlong 3-year-olds, and it looked at the furlong grounds like Burnham Square would run him down. Missed by a head.Even before the race, Wilkes had decided to give Burnham Square the rest of the year off, letting this narrow-framed horse fill out and mature, aiming to come back with a 4-year-old who could contend in long-distance Grade 1 grass races. Wilkes hoped to run Burnham Square a couple weeks after his actual Feb. 28 comeback, but with no other spot available, he just went ahead and gave Burnham Square a race. Beyond serving as a pure prep, that 1 1/16-mile allowance fell far short of the distance Burnham Square needs for his best. Nonetheless, he came running at wire-to-wire winner Cruise the Nile (more on him momentarily) while finishing fastest. Cruise the Nile always gallops out strongly, but Burhnam Square by the end of the clubhouse turn had gone far clear.Burnham Square hit every mark Wilkes wanted coming out of the Gulfstream race and into the Elkhorn. Some solid 12-furlong grass horses populate this field, but nobody with anything close to Burnham Square’s upside. He won’t reach his 4-1 morning line, but I’m still buying.Henry ClarkCruise the Nile started breezing as an August 2-year-old but did not make the races until November of his 4-year-old season. Graham Motion gave him a dirt sprint to prepare the horse for his calling, turf routes, and Cruise the Nile was on his way. To where? Who can say, because he’s done nothing wrong yet and still has a high ceiling.Last out, Cruise the Nile thumped not just runner-up Burnham Square, but third-place Chapman’s Peak (who was to race Thursday at Keeneland) – good horses. He’s the rare horse who combines early speed with a turn of foot. He quickens in upper stretch and has finished as fast or faster than anyone in this three routes. He’s aggressive while not being a run-off, and I expect if the other speed – and there’s plenty of it – goes flying in the Clark, Cruise the Nile will consent to being taken a few lengths off the lead. I also expect him to beat these horses at a relatively sane price, then go on to win the Dinner Party on the Preakness undercard.Ben AliWhy did trainer Bill Mott send Stars and Stripes to Oaklawn for a second-level allowance race last month? I imagine he wanted a Ben Ali prep and could find nothing in Florida.Stars and Stripes has shown talent from his 31-1 debut, when he had no business finishing third given his greenness and trip. Don’t know what happened in the Dwyer, but at this point, I’m not worrying about it; everything else through his career points the right direction.The morning line has Stars and Stripes twice as high as stablemate Batten Down; Stars and Stripes beat him more than three lengths at Gulfstream, and, to my eye, outworks him. And speaking of works – the video from a three-furlong April 12 breeze provided all I needed to see.