Cliff Hanger looks confusing for handicappers

There is nothing straightforward about the Grade 3 Cliff Hanger at Monmouth Park on Sunday.

The pace isn’t easy to decipher. There are horses returning from layoffs. There are horses shortening up in distance for the 1 1/8-mile turf race and horses stretching out.

Heiko, who is coming off a $7,500 starter win at Laurel Park for trainer Dimitrios Synnefias, may be the longest shot in the eight-horse field. He may also have the best early speed.

Il Segreto, who will be making his U.S. debut for Christophe Clement, showed early foot in his races in France and also could be forwardly placed. This will be his first start since April.

Hothersal will be returning from a 10-week layoff for Jason Servis after making three of his four starts this year in turf sprints. Riviere Du Loup, also trained by Servis, and Can’thelpbelieving, conditioned by Graham Motion, will be shortening up from turf marathons. Riviere Du Loup finished sixth in the Grade 1 United Nations. Can’thelpbelieving was fifth in that race and has since finished fourth to Flintshire in the Bowling Green.

Other possibilities in the $100,000 race are Captain Dixie, who did not fire his best shot over yielding ground on Haskell Day in the Grade 3 Oceanport for Jamie Ness, and Syntax, who finished strongly in a Laurel optional-claiming race in his first start for Michael Dickinson while returning from a nine-month layoff.

Here are thoughts on several of the entrants:

◗ Il Segreto has been productive at the minor tracks in France, with his four wins coming at Lyon-Parilly, Toulouse, and Le Bouscat. He raced on the all-weather tracks last winter and then ran what may be his best career races on turf in the spring. A 4-year-old, he will be treated with Lasix for the first time and just may be comfortably spotted by Clement.

◗ Captain Dixie raced far back in the Oceanport and found his best stride too late. His good fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Dixie on Preakness Day was a much better effort. Look for him to improve.

◗ Through Thursday, Dickinson was 6 for 27 (22 percent) in his training return this year. It is not out of the question that Syntax could give him the first stakes win of his comeback.

Syntax lagged well back and then made a nice move into a 1 1/16-mile course-record time in his comeback race. He has since breezed five times over the turf and Tapeta courses at Dickinson’s Maryland farm and gets an extra sixteenth of a mile Sunday.