Sir Anthony Aims for Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Repeat

After rallying from ninth place—10 lengths back early—to win last year's Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3), Sir Anthony will try for a repeat win in the 1 1/8-mile test July 5.

While Sir Anthony has not won since last year's Cornhusker, when he edged Dark Vader by a neck, the late-running 5-year-old son of Mineshaft  will look to turn things around on one of the kinder dirt tracks for closers in North America. His winning effort last year was his first start at Prairie Meadows.

Video: Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H. (G3)

Owned by Richard Otto and trained by Anthony Mitchell, Sir Anthony will be making his second start of the season after opening 2020 with a seventh-place finish in the March 28 Hal's Hope Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park. While he was never a threat in that 1 1/8-mile test, he did pass a couple of horses in the stretch.

Sunday's Cornhusker, offered as Race 10 on the Prairie Meadows Festival of Racing card, will close out an all-stakes Pick 3 as it will follow the Iowa Derby and the Iowa Oaks (G3), both contested at 1 1/16 miles. The 1 1/8-mile Cornhusker, for 3-year-olds and older, has attracted nine entries to race for $100,000, its purse slashed from last year's $300,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sir Anthony is the 4-1 second-choice on the morning-line while Steve Landers Racing's Night Ops is the 5-2 favorite. Trained by Brad Cox, Night Ops finished ninth in a deep edition of the May 2 Oaklawn Handicap (G2) at Oaklawn Park. 

Before that off-the-board effort—where he raced wide in the far turn—Night Ops put together a stretch where he won three of four races, capped by a clear victory over Snapper Sinclair in the March 14 Essex Handicap on a sloppy surface at Oaklawn. A 4-year-old son of Warrior's Reward , Night Ops is the co-highweight—at 119 pounds with Sir Anthony—as he tries for the first graded stakes win of his career.

While the co-highweights aim to improve off their previous efforts, Dunph enters off two straight wins as the 4-year-old son of Temple City  will try for the first graded stakes win of his career. Dunph won a claiming race April 10 at Oaklawn, where he was claimed for $30,000 by owner Richard Davis and trainer Robertino Diodoro.

The new connections struck quickly, as Dunph—at odds of 57-1—upset an allowance optional claiming race May 2 at Oaklawn. Diodoro finished that meet as Oaklawn's leading trainer with 52 wins.

Rounding out the field are HWL Partnership's My Sixth Sense, Joe Peacock's Sheriff Brown, Dream Walkin' Farms' (Toby Keith) Sonny Smack, Claim To Fame Stable's Iowa-bred Net Gain, Crystal Racing Enterprises and Contreras Stable's Rated R Superstar, and Danny Stafford's Downtowner.

Entries: Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H. (G3)

Prairie Meadows, Sunday, July 05, 2020, Race 10

• Grade III
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 8:02 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1My Sixth Sense (KY)	David Cabrera	115	Steve Hobby	10/1
2	2Sir Anthony (IL)	Alex Birzer	119	Anthony Mitchell	4/1
3	3Night Ops (KY)	Martin Garcia	119	Brad H. Cox	5/2
4	4Sheriff Brown (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	115	Steven M. Asmussen	6/1
5	5Sonny Smack (KY)	Walter De La Cruz	114	Don Von Hemel	15/1
6	6Net Gain (IA)	Ken S. Tohill	114	Clinton C. Stuart	20/1
7	7Rated R Superstar (KY)	Emmanuel Esquivel	117	Cipriano Contreras	9/2
8	8Downtowner (KY)	Leandro D. Goncalves	115	Jon G. Arnett	15/1
9	9Dunph (KY)	David Cohen	114	Robertino Diodoro	5/1