Friday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Skims restarts campaign with some class relief

Belmont | Race 5 | Post Time 3:09 p.m. (ET)

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My main interest in this race is to bet against two horses, Atomic Blonde (#1) and Star Devine (#6). Atomic Blonde will take money based on her superior speed figures, and Star Devine will get bet because it’s a trainer switch to Mike Maker with Irad Ortiz Jr. riding. Yet I believe that both of these fillies aren’t running over their ideal distance in this nine-furlong affair. This feels too short for Atomic Blonde, who has done her best work in races at 1 1/4 miles and beyond, and it surely seems too far for sprinter Star Devine.

In my view, Skims (#5) is clearly the horse to beat, and it seems possible that she might not even go favored. She was overmatched when she came off the layoff in the Jenny Wiley last time, but her form was heading in the right direction at the end of her 3-year-old season. She made a decisive move to take over on the turn of the Sands Point last year en route to victory, and then was hardly disgraced in the American Oaks where she was part of a rough stretch drive. If she can build on any of those races she’ll be tough to handle.

I would use her with Mise En Scene (#2), who rebounded from a poor effort in the American Oaks last year in her return at Keeneland. She had a lot of ground to make up at the quarter pole and put in a strong late run to just miss. This feels like a tougher field than that one, but she could get some pace ahead of her.