Interested to see how the Alabama shakes out. No interest in betting it. The Del Mar Oaks drew a dozen, and all the Woodbine stakes feel playable. Jutland in the Soaring Free and Victory Achieved in the Bold Venture just missed the cut. E.P. Taylor After shifting from El Cordobes to El Rezeen (an El of a bad decision) in the Sword Dancer, I don’t plan to miss on a similar Godolphin horse. Like El Cordobes, Diamond Rain comes to North America for the first time as a lightly raced 4-year-old lacking Grade 1 or Group 1 credentials. Like El Cordobes, she’s in the right spot for trainer Charlie Appleby, who, with even greater intent than last weekend, appears to have aimed for exactly this race. Appleby’s last two race choices suggest as much. Back up a year, though. Diamond Rain beat decent rivals winning her first two starts, overcoming a poor debut break, and drawing sharply clear in the last 10 strides of her second out. Treated like a good filly, she went to Royal Ascot for the Ribblesdale – and was cooked with three furlongs remaining. Something specific went amiss, and Diamond Rain didn’t race again until last fall. Draw a line through Ascot. In her Doncaster comeback (she was right there with 50 yards left), a firm-ground filly caught a soft, laboring course. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Haydock Park, where Diamond Rain returned with a very nice win May 24, is a left-handed, galloping track, not unlike North American courses. And after that career best, Appleby eschewed a more important European turf contest, instead going to a Group 3 on the Newcastle all-weather. Newcastle? Left-handed, long gentle turns, long straightaway. Sounds like Woodbine. The E.P. Taylor, I’d guess, has stood as Diamond Rain’s goal for a couple months. By contrast, it kind of came out of nowhere for heavily favored She Feels Pretty, whose publicly stated target had been the Flower Bowl. Will Diamond Rain go as high as the 6-1 morning line for a trainer who is 7 for 12 in Woodbine stakes the last five years? Unlikely. She still can make it rain. Del Mar Oaks Lush Lips got touted in this space about five months ago, when, after setting a strong pace, she held second, beaten just a half-length, in the Florida Oaks. Nitrogen, who ran her down, took a last-start defeat but remains the leading 3-year-old turf route filly in North America. Lush Lips’s performance has aged well. Lush Lips probably would have gotten closer to Nitrogen in the Edgewood had trainer Brendan Walsh not used the race as a learning experience. A front-runner her first three starts for Walsh, Lush Lips got wrangled well off the Edgewood pace. She resented it but eventually settled enough to come with a good run for second. And in the June 28 Tepin, Lush Lips showed she’d been a star pupil, relaxing sweetly, roaring to the front in upper stretch, winning in a breeze. Talent? I’d like you to meet Professionalism and Maturity. Lush Lips has grown up, learned to put her natural ability to its best use. Will that be enough to take down favored Thought Process? Think so. King’s Plate The barn liked Tom’s Magic over the winter in New Orleans. They also described him as sort of a talented big baby. Not in the pejorative sense. He was just a colt with a lot of size who needed to grow into his frame and really learn to use his brain. To that end – the Tale of the Cat on June 28 at Monmouth. There, Tom’s Magic showed the mental and psychological growth connections had hoped to see. Improved positional pace got him into the pocket, he waited patiently for his jockey’s cue and jumped on the leaders with a strong turn of foot that quickly propelled him to the lead. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  That looked like an ideal King’s Plate prep, and while no public workout video exists, clearly Tom’s Magic has hit every mark since his last start. In fact, he’s posted a least one timed workout every month beginning in July 2024, not a case at all of a colt used too hard, but of one who has stayed sound, in the feed tub, and generally headed in the right direction for more than a year. The pedigree and physical say he stays the 1 1/4 miles, and Tom’s Magic twice has had stints working on Tapeta tracks at Turfway and Fair Hill. The King’s Plate’s been the target literally all year. Tom’s Magic is ready to hit it. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.