OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainers Scott Volk and Bruce Alexander felt good about their chances in the $100,000 Select Stakes for 3-year-olds on Sunday at Monmouth. That was before they checked the entries, and saw the race got a whole lot tougher with the addition of Comedero. A winner of 8 of 9, Comedero usually has his races wrapped up long before the finish wire. Comedero faces only four rivals in the six furlong race with Robby Albarado aboard. “I didn’t think there was any horse in the Eastern seaboard that could beat this horse,” Volk said of his Out of Respect, a game second here to Discreetly Mine in the Grade 3 Jersey Shore Stakes. “Now I don’t know.” Alexander had high hopes for Six Gun City following a two-race winning streak. That was before Comedero was in the picture. “It looks like he’s third-best in here,” Alexander said of his horse. Comedero is coming off one of his best efforts, a 2 1/4 length win in the $400,000 Red Legend Stakes at Charles Town on June 19. “He certainly was in command throughout,” said trainer Michael Stidham. “Robby was basically pulling him up from the sixteenth pole to the wire. The margin of victory wasn’t as big as some of the others, but he won it easily.” Comedero came out the Red Legend with a hind leg gash that required a dozen sutures and sidelined him for two weeks. “It must have happened when he was crossing over,” Stidham said. “A horse must have nicked him behind.” With Comedero ready to run, Stidham passed on the Amsterdam, and a showdown with Discreetly Mine, last Monday at Saratoga in favor of this spot. “Not wanting to run against Discreetly Mine was a consideration,” Stidham said. “We had a suspicion Discreetly Mine would do what he did.” And that was humble the Amsterdam field by 8 3/4 lengths. If he runs well in the Select, Stidham will consider the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga on Aug. 28. Or he could take a different path with the Arkansas-bred gelding. “Prestigious races don’t really matter to him,” Stidham said. “Money won is what we’re trying to do. If one of those big races turns out to be a good spot for him, we’ll certainly run in it. We’re not going to run in big name races just to run in them.”