Top pick: #4 (CHAPMAN) (5-2) - Veteran speedball is dropping down in class after a pair of stakes tries facing much tougher. He loves the inner-surface 6-3-1-1 and catches a field without many other front end types. C.C. Lopez is aboard and he can guide this gelding to a wire-to-wire score.
2nd pick: #8 (Oltre Oro) (3-1) - Lightly-raced gelding has been sharp in all but one start 5-2-2-0 and enters off a sharp win on Nov. 6. It was his first start since April and has worked very fast recently. Win candidate.
3rd pick: #7 (Duval) (5-1) - He tired in late October at Belmont and that was his only poor effort in 2014. Speed/stalker had gone 7-2-2-3 prior to that and son of "Kodiak Kowboy" is a factor with his best.
4th pick: #2 (Mischievously) (10-1) - Well bred gelding has won two in a row from off the pace and is moving way up in class for this attempt. Unless there's a complete pace collapse a small slice is his ceiling.