We're all looking for the hot first-time starter (yours truly included) but so many times the horses that win these maiden baby races are those with experience.

In this particular event, the only three horses that had previously started finished 1-2-3 at odds of 8-1, 24-1 and 7-2.

Unionizer, a second-time starter trained by Bill Mott, broke alertly under Junior Alvarado and took the lead soon after the start and carried his speed to the wire first. Johny's Bobby, who had made two previous starts for trainer Phil Bauer, got blinkers and Lasix and rallied under Julien Leparoux to be second. Southern Phantom, the white-faced horse who broke slow in his debut, broke better today, pressed the early pace and held on for third while the firsters behind him seemed to all be struggling.

The hot firster was Chief Executive, who got HAMMERED to 4-5. He broke slowly (like most of Todd Pletcher's babies have this meet) and was probably farther back than his connections wanted. He finished fifth.

The final time of 1:26.29 for seven furlongs wasn't overly impressive.

For what it's worth, in race 6, the other division of this maiden race, only Road Home (Mott and Alvarado again) and Derby Date (Lukas and Luis Saez) have made a start. The other six horses are all first-time starters.