Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Mo Damorninggrouch due for a better trip

Belmont | Race 10 | Post Time 5:51 p.m. (ET)

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I generally wanted to avoid the horses exiting the May 18 race at this level when searching for value in this maiden claiming finale. A bunch of runners hit the wire together that day, and those races are usually of subpar quality. The winner Queens Over Threes did come back to run decently in her next start, but I still have some reservations about the race. Dance With Me Babe (#3) and Pauciloquent (#2) finished less than a length apart in third and fourth. The former was setting an honest pace before fading late and may have run the best race. Though Pauciloquent was probably taken too far off the pace, and she was finishing strongly in the late stages.

Linarite (#12) is another who could take money as she drops in class out of an open company maiden claiming affair into this New York-bred race. She ran well at this level two back, and ran up to about the same level against slightly tougher last time. I’m just a little concerned about taking a horse who doesn’t possess any early speed at a short price.

My top pick is Mo Damorninggrouch (#4). This filly put in a good effort when second at this level at Saratoga last summer, and then got the wrong trip when she closed out her season at Aqueduct in the fall. She was racing wide after breaking from the outside post, chasing an extremely fast pace for the distance. She actually made some progress in upper stretch before tailing off late. She returned from the layoff last time at Belmont and again was compromised by a poor trip. She broke well from the outside, but was ridden without any urgency, allowed to drop back on the turn while following a tiring runner, always racing wide. She’s better than that, and I expect her to put in a more serious try second off the layoff switching into the barn of Patrick Reynolds.