A pleasure to peruse both the Aqueduct and Del Mar cards. They’re not just loaded with stakes, they are loaded with playable stakes that drew deep, competitive casts. Let’s sort them out. Hollywood Derby Chad Brown has trained the winner of the Hollywood Derby three times the last six years and has the favorite for this renewal of the 1 1/8-mile grass fixture, Program Trading. This colt was beaten at 3-5 in the Virginia Derby, but don’t hold that against him. The winner, Integration, is really good, and not just because he returned to capture the Hill Prince. Program Trading has done nothing wrong during a four-start career and has guts to go with talent, as he showed coming back on Webslinger to win Saratoga Derby Invitational. Webslinger looks like the second choice here, and as with Program Trading, he merits that support. This is not a small field, but it will be more manageable for Webslinger than the Twilight Derby, where he faced a dozen rivals. The more foes Webslinger meets, the more difficult his task, as he’s a colt most comfortable dropping to the back of the field just after the start and making his move on the outside. He finished fastest in the Twilight Derby and was done in by ground loss and having too much work left to do at the three-sixteenths pole. That said, one wonders if Webslinger at the very top of his game would have overcome the circumstances. Maybe he has a notch of improvement in him in his second start following a freshening. Maybe not. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. The horse loaded with the potential to improve Saturday is the other Brown runner and the pick to win, Redistricting. Even if he emerges as the wise-guy horse, he shouldn’t be lower than 5-1. Redistricting showed so much winning his career debut that Brown ran the colt second out in the Belmont Derby, not only jumping way up in class, but going from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/4 miles. It didn’t work out. Redistricting was somewhat sluggish after breaking from a wide post, lost ground while too far behind a muddling pace, and never got involved. His first-level allowance win Oct. 28, just his third race, looked nothing like that. The colt broke sharply and got right into the race, sitting in the pocket behind a solid pace and easily keeping up. Full of run at the three-furlong marker, he was blocked behind rivals to the three-sixteenths pole, and once Redistricting saw daylight – whoosh. Huge turn of foot, race over in five strides. He’ll love nine furlongs and can stick relatively close to the lone speed, Santorini. Cigar Mile It is certainly not the purview of a lowly scribe to race-plan a high-level horse’s campaign, but, man, has Senor Buscador always looked more like a miler than a nine- to 10-furlong horse. Is it mere coincidence that Senor B’s last three wins came in two races at 1 1/16 miles around two turns and in a one-turn mile? If you check out the fractional times from the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Pacific Classic, Senor B’s two recent Grade 1 tries over 1 1/4 miles, he is fastest in both through the second half-mile, and by a considerable margin in the Classic. Then he flattens and guts out the final furlong on will and ample talent. He actually ran commendably in the Classic. The Cigar Mile is going to unfold at a rapid tempo, both early and middle, and this time, when Senor Buscador, taking a major class drop, turns in that powerhouse half-mile, he’ll hit the wire in front. Remsen Dornoch drew away to an easy Keeneland maiden win last out, earning a field-best 90 Beyer despite failing to change leads. But therein lies the rub; the colt, at least in October, still raced greenly, running just to run, not with any clear purpose. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Sierra Leone gave the opposite kind of impression winning a one-turn maiden mile in his lone start. Trapped behind and between horses all the way around the bend and into the homestretch, Sierra Leone kept his cool, and once he angled to the far outside and leveled out, he came home like a monster. His body type, stride, and finish suggest a young horse ready for a major second-start step forward, and one who can get this nine-furlong trip. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.