Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Dr. Kraft gets back on right surface

Belmont | Race 7 | Post Time 4:13 p.m. (ET)

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This New York-bred allowance affair features the return of Mariachi (#7), who looked so impressive in his first couple of starts last season. He was highly touted on debut, going off at 7-2 against a tough field of maidens, and he nearly got the job done after pressing the pace the entire way. He then put it all together in his second start, showing improved speed from the rail to lead throughout. That has proven to be a strong maiden event, out of which multiple horses have returned to win or improve their speed figures. If he can build on those performances in his 3-year-old debut, he will be a handful. However, John Kimmel is 0 for 21 off layoffs of 180 days or more on dirt over the past 5 years.

His main rivals appear to be Ocean’s Reserve (#1) and Always Charming (#3), but they both have their flaws. The former just isn’t a convincing win candidate, having settle for second in half of his 10 career starts. He earned a competitive speed figure last time, but he also got a great pace setup that day and was still unable to get the job done. Always Charming has at least won his last two starts, but he’s done so against weaker competition, and comes into this with exposed form and Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, a recipe for an underlay.

I want to go in a different direction with Dr. Kraft (#4) at what figures to be a bigger price. He was actually beaten by Mariachi in that November maiden race last year, but he’s improved quite a bit since then. He put in a big effort to close for third behind the talented Maker’s Candy in the Gander Stakes over the winter, but proved next time that a mile may be a little far for him. I thought he ran deceptively well on the cutback in that Apr. 22 stallion series stakes when he launched a premature wide move into contention before flattening out. Now he gets a rider switch to Katie Davis, and moves back to the right surface after a failed turf experiment.