Seven fillies and mares in a second-level allowance with an $80,000 claiming option contest the featured ninth race Wednesday at Churchill Downs, all well and good, but, in the end, will be a secondary storyline on this card since a horse named Barnes contests race 7. Bob Baffert trains Barnes, and Baffert hasn’t run a horse at Churchill Downs since Crystal Ball won an allowance race May 8, 2021. One week earlier, the late Medina Spirit had crossed the finish first in the Kentucky Derby, giving Baffert a record seventh winner in the race – until Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone and wound up getting disqualified from the Derby. Churchill Downs Inc. subsequently disqualified Baffert from running at any of the company’s racetracks, a ban CDI finally lifted this past summer, leading to the entry of Barnes in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden dash. One would imagine Baffert, who didn’t respond to messages over the weekend, means business upon his Churchill return and would not send Barnes from California merely to have a runner. In fact, one might imagine Barnes’s presence could presage what Baffert and owner Amr Zedan hope could be a return trip to Louisville in May. Zedan, after all, paid $3.2 million to acquire Barnes, a son of Into Mischief and All American Dream, at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga yearling sale of 2023. Zedan regularly makes seven-figure auction purchases but typically at 2-year-old in training sales, not yearling auctions. Barnes has logged a long string of Southern California workouts, many available online for public viewing. Though Barnes always works forwardly, his recent breezes in blinkers have looked far stronger than his drills without them. Barnes worked (in blinkers) on Nov. 20 with the decent 3-year-old New King, and displayed an eye-catching turn of foot when cut loose past the furlong grounds before going into the most serious part of his breeze around the clubhouse turn and down onto the backstretch. Barnes, listed at 6-5 on the morning line, won’t offer anything close to fair value – but you can consider playing longshot Charriere in the featured ninth. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.