One Eyed Joker definitely prefers firm turf to any other type of surface but if you ignore his poor efforts on soft turf and his one attempt at 1, 3/8 miles (in which he reluctantly found himself on the lead in a paceless race) his overall line looks solid and his recent line looks very strong. He is a little slow going into this race but he has been hanging around the 5.5 level for quite a while now. He first hit that level almost 6 months ago and then circled back to it and then paired up in his two most recent races. He is young and fresh and looks like he could be ready to make another forward move now. He has run well at GP in the past and is likely to save ground early. He definitely looks like the wild card in this race.
Star Over the Bay and TV Sports Director have similar lines but don’t look quite as strong to me although I do think that both have a decent shot to hit the board at a price.
Hap is the obvious horse to beat despite the weights; however, Bailey is likely to give him a very confident ride and try to keep him out of trouble, which means he could lose ground on both turns. That may be enough to open the door for some of the others.
The rest of the field is hard to separate and nothing else stands out to me. It should be a fun race to watch.
Good luck to all.
Chris
