Well friends Saratoga has ended and my post Saratoga depression has begun. However we are back at Belmont Park with their special 3PM post times this fall. We have an 8 race card for today and are going to try and start off this fall season hot!
Race 1: 4-3-2
#4 GLAM is interesting here, coming off a win over at Laurel and has a very nice closing kick. There should be a little bit of pace up front for her to chase. She’s run ITM both times here at Belmont and won here easily in May. She’s a constant runner at this distance and should have a nice chance to win here in a weak field at a price.
Race 2: 2-1-5
#2 SPICE ROAD has never finished out of the money in 4 career races and has the best Beyer earned out of the entire field. Ran a third and a second via DQ here over this Belmont oval. Johnny V jumps up to take the mount and this guy just ran a bullet work up at the spa on the last day of August.
Race 3: 3-2-1
#3 HARDCORE FOLKLORE is a professional runner at this distance and is ITM 4 for 4 times at this distance. Manny Franco jumps up and will have options as this gelding is versatile and can run off the pace or on it. He is ITM in all 6 races since moving to running dirt sprints with 4 wins as well. Beyers for this guy have been improving and he has proven he can beat a field of this caliber.
Race 4: 5-3-2
#5 HIGHER AUTHORITY has ascending Beyer’s over the last three races and though we don’t see any ITM finished, all those races he was closer than 2 1/2 lengths back at the wire. This race I can foresee the pace being slower for him and Manny up front and the extra 1/16th of a mile won’t be an issue if the pace is softer for him here.
Race 5: 7-2-1/1A
Kind of a stink race here but we are going to go with #7 ZONIC strictly for the pace scenario. We have pretty much a full field of those who like to be on the lead or up on the pace, except for out guy here. Granted this means we are trusting Eric Cancel to give this gelding a good ride but he did well enough at Saratoga for us to give him a shot on this closer with this type of angle.
Race 6: 10-8-4
#10 SOUTHERN BRIGADE has Junior jumping off his regular mount to jump on here and that in itself is encouraging. We see the best Beyer figure earned of his career in his last race where he got nosed out. That 1/16th of a mile less in distance should be beneficial and the price we could get here is solid and this guy has a lot of upside here.
Race 7: 5-2-4
#5 HONOR WAY has a great record here at Belmont and is also very solid at this distance as well. The race she ran last time had all 4 runners who have hit the track since run ITM with 3 runners winning in as many races with no Beyer drops. If that isn’t enough then we have Manny up and a lot of pace for this mare to close in on.
Race 8: 1-2-4
#1 FARCICAL has the best Beyers in the field here and has run ITM both times at this distance and all 3 times on the grass. We are getting Junior up which is a solid rider improvement. There is a drop but this filly ships in from Delaware so is there really a drop? Her late kick will come in handy with some pace up front and she has more talent than this field it looks like.