Jet Prospector, right back?

ELMONT, N.Y. - Thursday's featured eighth race drew a field of seven older sprinters, and as is often the case during the early stages of Belmont Park's spring meet, bettors are confronted with several horses returning from layoffs in the six-furlong allowance with an optional claiming price of $75,000.

Show Boot, the pace-call leader in eight of his last 11 dirt races, has been idle for longer than three months, since a runner-up finish in Aqueduct's Hollie Hughes Handicap.

, whose four victories last year included Beyer Speed Figures of 111 and 107, was claimed by trainer Sal Russo for $100,000 at Saratoga nine months ago, and has not been out since.

, in the money in three Grade 3 sprint stakes on turf and dirt on the Southern California circuit last year, makes his New York debut for trainer Bruce Levine off a layoff of almost 13 months.

, first or second in 10 of his 11 starts, has been sidelined for two months since breaking slowly and running fourth in a starter allowance at Gulfstream Park. He will be making his first start for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. (who has won first out with 40 percent of his new acquisitions since the start of 2004), and is coupled with Jet Prospector.

represents the other end of the activity spectrum. The speedy New York-bred gelding has won 5 of 8 starts since given over to Dutrow last year, and rocketed six furlongs in 1:08.80 at Monmouth Park just last Saturday to earn a Beyer Speed Figure of 109. The key handicapping question of the race is, can he run anywhere close to that level on just four days' rest?

Also in the field are two 6-year-olds making the third start of their form cycles: Maybry's Boy, whose last start on Belmont dirt was a seventh-place finish in last June's True North Breeders' Cup Handicap won by eventual Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Speightstown, and Sure You Can, who came again to win a $65,000 claiming sprint at Aqueduct last out.

The sixth race, an allowance sprint for non-winners of two races, drew a field of six 3-year-olds. War Plan, who set the pace and finished third in the Withers behind Preakness runner-up Scrappy T, drops in class and looms a clear-cut choice from the outside post.

War Plan, a $700,000 purchase as a 2-year-old last year, blew out three furlongs Tuesday in a bullet 34 seconds on the training track for trainer Allen Jerkens.