Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Clear Conscience looks to rebound from poor trip

Belmont at the Big A | Race 8 | Post Time 3:49 p.m. (ET)

Bettrluckythangood (#5) has been in excellent form through his recent starts at this level, improving in each successive race. He got a wide trip trying to close against an inside bias on the inner turf at Saratoga two back. Then last time he again tried to make a wide move around the far turn and was finishing best of all late. He needs a strong setup, and he figures to get that here with the TimeformUS Pace Projector predicting a fast pace.

Locke and Key (#8) has a similar running style, but he ran a different sort of race when they met on Sept. 15. After taking up his usual position towards the back of the pack early, he launched a wide backstretch move, advancing without cover before going on to press the pace into the turn. He ultimately flattened out late, but the early move detracted from his finishing ability. He’s another who has been in great form recently, and he might be a slightly better price.

My top pick is Clear Conscience (#2). He finished much farther back in the Sept. 15 race, but his trip was a disaster. He got badly hampered at the start, bumped hard between horses and completely steadied out of position. From there he found himself at the back of the pack, giving Jose Lezcano few options. He chose to launch a premature move to get back into the race on the far turn, but got spun four wide around that bend, and flattened out from there. He’s much better than that, as he displayed in his prior start beating a strong N1X allowance field with a competitive 113 TimeformUS Speed Figure. That effort suggested he had improved off a trainer switch to Mark Casse, and he can build on that form here at a price.

I also want to upgrade Agent Creed (#11), who draws into this field after the scratch of Runningwscissors. He also participated in that Sep. 15 affair where he just fell out of position in the early stages, finding himself last past the half-mile pole. He doesn't have to rally from that far behind, and I would hope that Romero Maragh shows a little more initiative from this outside draw. He figures to get somewhat overlooked as he sneaks into the field, and he ran a race two back at Saratoga that is much better than it looks on paper. He was wide without cover for muc of the way and didn't perform any worse than a few of the aforementioned rivals who also took part in that event.