Sunday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Disarmed can rebound getting back on turf

Belmont at the Big A | Race 4 | Post Time 2:12 p.m. (ET)

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The horse to beat in this New York-bred optional claimer is Runningwscissors (#9). His overall body of work sprinting on turf just makes him a logical win candidate at this level. He won for this condition at the distance back in April, and then couldn’t quite catch Yarrow, who got an absolutely perfect trip on July 13. He made one turf start for Joe Sharp after that and actually ran quite well at a higher level despite having some trouble at the start going a distance that may be too far for him.

Yarrow (#7) did beat his main rival when last seen, but he’s been off for over 3 months since then and now returns at the same level for a tag. We are reaching the end of turf season, so perhaps the connections are just placing him to win again, but it is a little surprising to see him risked for that price off his strong effort last time.

I want to go in a different direction with Disarmed (#1). This 3-year-old looked like he was not quite of this quality early in the year, but he’s been improving over the past few months since Rudy Rodriguez has focused on turf sprints with him. He was a little lucky to win on July 28 when it looked like the runner-up was going to roll by him before that rival stumbled in the last sixteenth. However, he was then compromised when moved up in class to this level on Sep. 1. You didn’t want to be down inside on the Mellon turf course during that period of time, so he had that working against him. He also got completely stymied in traffic through the last three-sixteenths of a mile in a race that was falling apart. He rebounded on dirt last time, which just speaks to the fact that he’s in strong form right now. He figures to be forwardly placed again from the inside with Rosario in a race that doesn’t feature a ton of pace.