After getting off to an OK start, we’ve really slowed down on finding winners. This definitely coincides with how I’ve felt about my meet as a whole. It’s been a struggle to find any value and string anything together. I’d like to blame the weather for all this, but the handicapping and wagering structure hasn’t been there all meet.

Caleb @CalebWVU

Race 5 – #4 Brookmesa: With my original pick being inexplicably taken off the turf, I’ve had to audible to a new race. Race 5 is ripe with first time starters, but I don’t find any of the high profile runners in here particularly appealing. Catherine Wheel and Candied figure to take money on connections. The former sold for a hefty price and attracts Irad Ortiz, but the morning works have been even at best. The latter finally broke cleanly in that August 13 drill but has recently struggled getting away from the gate. In a race that feels wide open, I’m going to shoot for a price in Brookmesa. Teresa Pompay is not a household name, but she is quietly in the midst of a 19% year, mostly in Florida. While she isn’t reknown for her success with debut runners, I find it extremely interesting that she sees fit to ship this filly up from Gulfstream to run against some extremely tough two-year-olds instead of taking an easier route to a win by staying in Florida. The work tab would suggest she has plenty of early speed, and securing Kendrick for the mount indicates the plan is likely to break running and let the field come and catch her.

Josh @CherryDrank

Race 1 – #4 From Hello: Upon first glance, From Hello looks to be a few points too slow to win this race, but the trip last time out left a bit to be desired. Rank out of the gate, came out at the first turn, and checked, she was empty down the stretch and finished far back. The TimeformUS figure came back as a 93 and I expect improvement here from that last race. Although she was never really involved in the last race, the winner, Silver Skillet, came back to win a NY Bred Stakes next out so she was definitely facing some quality last time out. TimeformUS and Optix disagree a bit on the pace setup here as Optix assigned this a pretty fast speed rating with little contention and the Pace Projector from TFUS has this as a slow pace. If no pace materializes, I like the #9 LLady Firefoot to possibly wire the field. From Hello sits as a big Q3 square on the plot and with some pace help upfront could be very dangerous here at 12-1 ML.

Mark @Two_Turns

Race 7 – #2 Set Sail: This homebred son of Mailbu Moon was the morning line favorite in the 2022 Peter Pan before not breaking well, getting shuffled back and proceeding to run up the track. He then moved to the Mott barn, had one start where he ran quite well in defeat and went on the bench for 13 months. He returned from the long layoff about a month ago and probably needed the last where everyone chased blowout winner Slip Mahoney in a somewhat merry go round affair. He’s always had gate troubles, but those are common in returners from long layoffs, and I would expect him to be a lot sharper here. He’s the inside drawn speed here and I expect him to be on the lead, which is the winning trip in this odd 8f configuration. This feels like the kind of race where when it’s over you go “OMG, they let a logical Mott horse go off at 10-1, what were they thinking!?!?!?!”.

Race 8 – #6 Silo Ridge: I was gifted a second pick due to a late scratch last weekend so I’ll once again land on a Mott horse in the #6 Silo Ridge. Bil Mott has historically been a low percentage FTS trainer where you want to bet them in their 2nd or 3rd start. This son of Ghostzapper ran fine in debut and the figure came back solid so I would expect him to take a step forward here. I also love to see Saez stick as Mott has started to utilize him more than Alvarado on his more “well meant” starters. The price should be solid as other interesting options exist, but I like the tactical speed this one showed on debut and expect more stamina to be their 2nd time out.