Friday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Clover Street better than last result suggests
Belmont at the Big A | Race 7 | Post Time 4:29 p.m. (ET)
This allowance optional claimer for New York-breds only attracted 7 entrants, but it's a highly competitive affair where cases can be made for each of them. There doesn't appear to be much early speed entered, which may give the edge to Fast and Frisky (#6), who is depicted leading this field on the TimeformUS Pace Projector in a scenario favoring frontrunners. She did win going gate to wire when she broke her maiden a couple of winters ago, but she hasn't utilized that style since then. She may find herself on the lead here by default, and her races two and three back going this distance make her a logical contender. I won't be too hard on her for the last race since she was meeting an unusually tough field for the level in a race dominated by heavy favorite Dolomite.
Valtellina (#5) is another who may be able to attain forward position. She isn't shown towards the front on the Pace Projector because she had lacked speed in most of her recent starts over the winter, but she changed up her running style last time. With blinkers on for just the second time, she was far more engaged early, stalking the pace before drawing off to a convincing victory. She is a 3-year-old stepping up against older horses, but her last couple of speed figures make her competitive with this group.
My top pick is Clover Street (#4), who is another with the tactical speed to contest what is likely to be a moderate early pace. She's never won at this one-mile distance, but she ran reasonably well going this far a few times over the last couple of winters. Her last race obviously is concerning, but she's exiting the same allowance race as Fast and Frisky, where both were facing an extremely tough rival for the level. I also didn't like the trip Clover Street worked out, as she was conservatively ridden early and was always out of her preferred position, then not really persevered with late. She gets a rider switch to Javier Castellano, and I expect to see more aggressive tactics in the early stages this time.