Friday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Improving Rapt is an alternative to the favorites

Aqueduct | Race 4 | Post Time 1:20 p.m. (ET) | Go to the TimeformUS PPs

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I suppose Business Expense (#4) is the horse to beat off the strength of his maiden win at Saratoga. However, this 4-year-old gelding has some questions to answer. First, where has he been for the nearly three months since that victory? It obviously took him some time to get to the races, and it seems he’s needed some time to recover from his debut. I’d be willing to overlook all that if Chad Brown had better numbers with his second-time-starting debut winners in turf routes. Over the past five years, he is just 9 for 54 (17 percent, $1.01 ROI) in these situations – a very poor statistic for this barn.

The Pace Projector is predicting a fast pace, due to the presence of speeds such as Pioneer Spirit and The J Y. Therefore, I’m hoping that RAPT (#7) can take advantage of the pace scenario and finally get lucky enough to win another race.

Rapt has had some excuses in recent starts. He probably should have won three back when closing into a slow pace at Saratoga, and then was taken too far off the pace going 10 furlongs at Belmont. Last time, he ran one of the finest races of his career, making a solid late bid to finish third in the Mohawk behind the talented duo of Black Tide and Offering Plan. I believe that a repeat of that effort will be good enough to beat this field.

THE PLAY

Win: 7
Exacta Key Box: 7 with 3,4,8
Trifecta: 7 with 3,4,8 with 1,3,4,8