BIG DISCOVERY
Trainer: Tim Yakteen
Last race: July 8, 5th
Finish: 4th by 10
Beyer: 59
Top rider Edwin Maldonado is recently having trouble leaving the gate. This gelding broke slowly in a sprint dominated by speed. Would fit in $25,000 claiming N2L, short or long.

I'll try a pick three on the last three Thoroughbred races on the Saturday card at Delaware Park, ending with the featured Grade 3 Delaware Oaks:

RACE 8: I'll use favorite NORTHERN MINE (#1), but only defensively, as she has had 12 chances and is one to try to beat on major tickets. Same goes for FIRST TO FIRE (#2), second choice on the Morning Line. "A" plays will be firster I'M NOT JOKING (#7) ad New York ship-in WIREDANCER (#8), who could benefit from a quick pace.

A's: 7, 8

The Stars and Stripes Festival at Belmont Park on Saturday features six graded stakes, highlighted by the two Grade 1’s for 3-year-olds on grass – the Belmont Derby and the Belmont Oaks. Mother Nature looms as we inch closer to the card, with the forecast calling for a 30 percent chance of showers in the afternoon (let’s hope that the percentages are in our favor and we land in the 70 percent chance of no showers region). Here are some races and specific horses I’m looking to key.

Race 6, Grade 3 Victory Ride

ARCADIA, Calif. – Let’s face it: When turf racing ended three weeks ago at Santa Anita, a tailspin began.

Small fields are unattractive. Field sizes at Santa Anita are low. That sums it up. Before turf racing ended June 19, the average field size was 7.5 starters per race. Since then, on dirt only, the average field size has dwindled to 6.4.

It is not much better Saturday, with an average of 6.5 starters per race.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Masochistic and Firing Line return this weekend, burdened by lofty expectations. Both are odds-on favorites making their first start of the season – Masochistic in race 7 Friday, and Firing Line in race 4 Saturday.

The similarities between Masochistic and Firing Line go beyond price. A year ago, both were established Grade 1-caliber runners. Masochistic was a Grade 1-winning sprinter; Firing Line finished second in the 2015 Kentucky Derby.

It doesn’t happen often but we will take a bow for last week’s double Pix success simply from a stride length (SL) and strategy point. At Belmont Libby’s Tail settled in from her middle post while Golden Mischief had to scoot out fast from the rail and the latter tired and finished fourth off a 23.58 foot SL while Libby’s Tail used her 25.08 foot SL to get up at $8.50. At Parx, Rum Punch just crushed her rivals with her 25.78 foot SL to pay $5.00.

The Fourth of July is in the rearview mirror, but Saturday at Belmont Park is Stars and Stripes Festival Day, with six graded stakes races led by the Grade 1, $1.25 million Belmont Derby and the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Oaks. There also are stakes-packed cards at Delaware Park, where the main event is the Grade 3, $300,000 Delaware Oaks, and Arlington, which offers four Grade 3 events.

Belmont Sprint Championship

HARDEST CORE
Trainer: Edward Graham
Last race: July 3, 8th
Finish: 2nd by 1
Beyer: 92
The 2014 Arlington Million winner gave the favored Danish Dynaformer a run for his money. He stalked a lively pace in his second start after an extended layoff in the Grade 3 Singspiel Stakes.

RINSE AND REPEAT
Trainer: Doug O’Neill
Last race: July 3, 9th (Pleasanton)
Finish: 3rd by 3
Beyer: 56
A maiden in a $100,000 Cal-bred stakes, this Square Eddie 2-year-old second-time starter should have won. Off slowly from rail, shuffled and lost position into turn, re-rallied. Next start likely at Del Mar vs. Cal-bred maidens or in a stakes.

MINTINEZED
Trainer: Phil D’Amato
Last race: July 1, 8th

July 2

Belmont