First of all, at a glance. The scratch of SPELLMAKER may have a major impact on the race. As one who considers pace and race shapes, my first thought was NAVAJO WARRIOR was gonna face considerable pace pressure for the first half of the race and then have to defend against a bevy of solid late runners to win. The defection of SPELLMAKER has changed my opinion. Now, IMHO, only GIGANTE & BULLARD will be running anywhere near the easy pace of NAVAJO WARRIOR, who could regress, but I don't think the competition will take him out of his race. GIGANTE is a curious one, and I need to do some further research before commenting further.

A little research turns up that the Prairie Meadows track is a one-mile oval. The Cornhusker Stakes distance is 1+1/8. BULLARD goes from the #1 gate. NAVAJO WARRIOR goes from the #8 gate. Advantage BULLARD. I believe BULLARD is about 50% to improve off his last. I also believe NAVAJO WARRIOR is about 50% to regress off his last. The latter (NW) is fastest on his best.

Trainer McCarthy brought jockey KIMURA KAZUSHI with him from Southern California. Saffie has brought jockey Micah Husbands with him from South Florida. Might as well mention money: Mike Smith also shipped in aboard GIGANTE, which adds to my curiosity. This is a step up, but apparently trainer Assmussen may think the big guy is better on dirt than turf and in maturity rather than his early career? Earlier I mentioned GIGANTE might be near the pacestters (maybe not) Go-wide-Mike is one of the best at results, and the trainer believes in the condition of this one I'm using him. Good luck, all.

Last minute thought, SAN SIRO has made quite a bit of money chasing Saffie's trainees and has a dependable line to get into the vertical payoffs.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2026 10:43PM by Tavasco.