Bet this race at Diamond SportsTop pick: #3 (DUPREE) (4-1) - Colt is brought back quickly after debuting Sept 4 at Saratoga. He lost his footing at the break but recovered to race evenly while finishing fifth of 10, beaten five lengths. Purchased for $110,000 this past March he worked a fast half-mile here Sept 11. Gets a slight edge.
2nd pick: #6 (Avail Ekati) (7-2) - Son of the G1 winner 'Tale of Ekati' makes his debut off of a steady work pattern. The best of those was a bullet five furlong breeze here Aug 18. Most of the other drills are of the stamina building variety and this $500K purchase is from a capable barn (Barclay Tagg).
3rd pick: #8 (Hammerin Aamer) (10-1) - Blinkers go on colt who raced both wide and evenly when debuting Aug 6 at Saratoga. He lost all chance that day when he was bumped of stride at the break. Longshot draws a good outside post at this distance and trainer Rudy Rodriguez wins at a 21% rate second time out.
4th pick: #4 (Lead Astray) (3-1) - Beautifully bred colt from the Phipps Stable has some good a.m. drills on his resume for his debut. Barn (Shug McGaughey) rarely has one ready first out, but it's noted that he has Jose Ortiz aboard. The trainer/jockey team has won with 26 of 101 (26%) when paired up over the past 21.5 months.