Top pick: #5 (UNEXPECTED GIFT) (4-1) - Gelding is clearly the main speed and ships down from Golden Gate Fields where he hust failed in a two-turn grass race running for $16K. 5-year-old went wire-to-wire in his previous start on the Stockton dirt and will be tough on the front end.
2nd pick: #1 (Joe Carl) (7-5) - The probable favorite and rightly so. He's won three races on this surface with the rest of the field being a combined 0-for-9 on it. Strong finisher is an obvious win candidate and I could easily have made him the top choice.
3rd pick: #2 (Scorpion Time) (4-1) - He has the most back class of these and comes off a win on the Hollywood "poly" racing at this level on Dec. 1. Consistent on both synthetics and grass, he's a factor if he brings that form to conventional dirt.