Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: My Buddy B should get better pace setup in Bold Ruler
Belmont at the Big A | Race 7 | Post Time 3:17 p.m. (ET)
Top Gunner (#2) could go favored here after appearing to improve in his first start off the claim for Brad Cox at Parx. He wasn’t beating the strongest field that day and he got a very good trip, but he still finished with much better energy than we had seen out of him in his prior starts. A repeat of that effort makes him a major player in this field, but he figures to be a short price coming off that stylish victory. He’s going to pull in plenty of support going out for such popular connections, and he still has to prove that he’s ready to sustain this improved form against a tougher field.
Main rival Scotland (#7) comes off a decent performance when finishing second behind the Breeders’ Cup bound Mufasa in the Vosburgh. That race was contested over a sloppy track and Scotland is probably a little better over fast going. He looked like a horse that was on the precipice of being a player in the sprint division with that impressive allowance victory going 7 furlongs two back. The major question for him is the turnback in distance, since he’s generally been most effective going a bit longer than this race’s 6 furlongs.
Surveillance (#4) should be a square price in this spot, and he has races in his past that would make him competitive with this group. His recent form isn’t quite as strong, but he did show some hints of his old self in that turf victory at Saratoga in July. That effort did come for Flying P Stable at a time when they were winning races in bunches at the Spa, but I thought he ran similarly well off the claim for Wayne Potts in the off the turf Troy. He didn’t break well that day and still won under light urging. Then last time he was back on turf racing down inside over a course favoring outside paths. He needs to improve slightly, but he’s better than he looks.
My top pick is My Buddy B (#5). He won a stakes at Parx two back that was of similar quality to the race won by Top Gunner, but this grey 5-year-old is going to be a much bigger price than that Cox trainee. He also got a 116 TimeformUS Speed Figure, tied for the highest recent number earned by anyone in this group. My Buddy B was facing much tougher graded stakes company in his two races that surrounding that Parx victory. It seemed like the connections made a plan to rate him in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt, which didn’t produce his best result. He also had little chance against horses like Nakatomi and Skelly, or even Federal Judge, who he chased home in the Phoenix last time. Now he’s landing in a race that features a very murky pace scenario. The Pace Projector is predicting a scenario favoring frontrunners, and he figures to get a much more aggressive ride in this spot.