Rarely does a horse exit a blowout victory and get an equipment change, but after winning a Keeneland first-level allowance by 6 1/4 lengths last month, Two Sharp returns to stakes competition Saturday racing for the first time in blinkers. Bettors probably won’t view that or Two Sharp’s first start beyond 6 1/2 furlongs as an impediment to her winning the Grade 3, $300,000 Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs. Listed as the 2-1 morning-line favorite, Two Sharp figures to go off a meaningfully shorter price than that in this one-turn mile. Three-year-old Two Sharp faces seven foes in her first try against older horses outside the maiden ranks. A Twirling Candy filly trained for Rigney Racing by Philip Bauer, Two Sharp finished second as an odds-on favorite debuting in June at Churchill. Second out, she won a Saratoga maiden sprint by more than 11 lengths, then finished second by a neck there to Brightwork as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Prioress. At 1-5, she coasted home an easy winner Oct. 12 at Keeneland, but even there, Two Sharp lacked polish. “She’s still doing stuff to make you think she’s not giving you quite as much as you’d hope,” Bauer said. Bauer said Two Sharp ducked out at the wire in both her Saratoga starts, attending, the theory goes, to photographers clustered at the finish. Jockey Junior Alvarado, in to ride Saturday, told Bauer that in the Keeneland race, Two Sharp “sucked back” at the three-furlong marker. :: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.  “She does everything so easy, she just loses focus,” Bauer said. “They’re just little blinkers that hopefully would keep her a little more locked in.” Bauer concedes that Two Sharp, a very fast filly, might not relish a distance as far as one mile. The Chilukki, he said, served as a better stepping-stone to the Grade 1 La Brea over seven furlongs at Santa Anita next month than a 5 1/2-furlong second-level allowance on offer at Churchill. The Illinois-bred win machine Oeuvre, 17 for 32 during her career, and Taxed, back from a two-month freshening, stand a better chance at pulling an upset than Imonra (who runs at Churchill and will be scratched from a Gulfstream race), Pigalle, Royal Spa, and Fancy. Positano Sunset offers the best alternative. Trainer Ian Wilkes gave Positano Sunset a look at two turns last month at Keeneland, where she ran decently but confirming one-turn racing is her thing. Before the route experiment, Positano Sunset was second to Zeitlos, who returned to win a Grade 2 at Keeneland, while racing along the rail over a Churchill surface, Wilkes believes, favored outside paths. Earlier in the year, Positano Sunset finished a good fourth in the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga and an even better second behind Grade 1 winner Vahva, holding top form at the time, in the Chicago at Churchill. “The way she’s trained since her last start, I think she’ll run really well,” Wilkes said. “This is the further she wants to go, but back to one turn is ideal.” Wilkes wants to see Positano Sunset settled into a good rhythm, stalking but not chasing Two Sharp. With a smooth trip, she can run down the newly blinkered favorite. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.