The statistic ought to jump off the page: From the most recent sample in the Daily Racing Form database, 36 percent of 45 horses won their first start after moving into the barn of trainer Brad Cox. Peruse the Cox stat lines, and that 36 percent hardly stands as an outlier. Cox has won with 28 percent of his last 688 dirt starters and with 27 percent of his last 543 route runners. He’s 41 percent with horses going sprint to route, 35 percent first off the claim, and – this is the whopper – 28 percent from 180 graded-stakes runners. And yet Cox’s return on investment is underwater in every one of those categories save the first one mentioned: The 45 experienced horses making their first start for Cox have yielded a $2.22 ROI. Thus, one might give extra attention to a 6-year-old Ireland-bred mare named Party On Girl, who makes her first start for Cox in the featured ninth race Thursday at Fair Grounds. Despite her age, Party On Girl only has raced a dozen times, winning three, and since her first victory over winners came for a paltry $10,000 purse in England, she’s eligible for the Thursday feature’s second-level allowance condition. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  The 5 1/2-furlong turf dash – Cox trains 26 percent winners and has a $1.52 ROI from 34 of his most recent turf-sprint starters – drew eight for turf and two more entered main-track-only, but since no rain shows up in the forecast, Thursday’s races should remain on turf. Party On Girl comes from California where, in her most recent start, she nosed out a rival to clear her first allowance condition in a Del Mar turf sprint. That race fits Thursday’s spot well enough, with Cecile the main rival standing between Party On Girl and a second straight win. Cecile drops from stakes competition, and solid fourth- and fifth-place finishes in her two starts since trainer Lindsay Schultz cut her back from routes to sprints suggest Cecile has found a niche racing around one turn rather than two. Hall of Fame earns a 103 Obviously, connections harbored grand hopes for the Gun Runner colt Hall of Fame after paying $1.4 million to acquire him as a 2022 yearling. Hall of Fame ran fast winning a Fair Grounds maiden route about a year ago, but failed to muster a competitive showing in a pair of stakes tries, and after the Louisiana Derby didn’t start again until Dec. 1. Hall of Fame won a one-turn mile first-level allowance at Churchill Downs in his comeback and on Sunday showed he may yet live up to his purchase price with an easy 6 1/2-length second-level allowance score. Hall of Fame ran 1 1/16 miles on a drying-out track labeled good in 1:43.94 and earned a graded stakes-class 103 Beyer Figure. “I loved how he did it, really comfortable the whole way, exactly what I was looking for,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “Last year was too much, too soon, but he doesn’t appear to be holding that against me. We’re going to see how he trains out of it, but he’s definitely headed the right direction.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.