HAWK’S EYES
Trainer: Lorenzo Ruiz
Last race: April 28, 7th
Finish: 3rd by 5 3/4
Beyer: 57
This veteran Group 1 winner from Brazil could have won this $8,000 claiming sprint. He was shut off, steadied, lost position, and finished well. He fits vs. similar claiming foes.

SALSA BAY
Trainer: Reade Baker
Last race: April 9, 9th
Finish: 2nd by head
Beyer: 72
He raced in second throughout over an anti-speed track to narrowly lose his 3-year-old debut while beating Conquest See Ya, who came back to capture a maiden special on the grass at Belmont with an 87 Beyer.

CHURCHILL DOWNS

Weather: Clear

Track:  Muddy

Temperature:  64

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -  For many years, Sunday seemed to be the work day of choice for the majority of Kentucky Derby contenders. Not so this year.

While the weather  had a hand in keeping activity to a minimum on Sunday morning, most of the 2016 Derby group had already been penciled in to have their final preps either Friday or Saturday, even before rain became an issue over the past several days.

On a rainy and cool Sunday at Belmont, three of the day’s five scheduled turf races have been moved to the main track.  The two turf races that remain, both six-furlong sprints for fillies and mares, will be run over courses labeled "good".  I'll try to incorporate those two races into a small pick three play that stands against the likely heavy favorite Geaux Mets in race 7.

CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Cloudy/Showery 
Track: Fast
Temp. 58

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Exaggerator and Brody’s Cause beat the rain, albeit just barely, turning in their final Kentucky Derby works over a fast track just as a light shower began to fall during the special Derby/Oaks training session shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Deuces could be wild (and fast) early on the Sunday card at Golden Gate Fields, as I’ll be singling a couple of horses carrying saddlecloth No. 2 in the pick five sequence that opens the nine-race program while also including the other No. 2s in the surrounding races.

High-percentage trainer John Martin has two entries in the opener, but CHAOTIC BEHAVIOR may have the edge in experience/recency/class over stablemate ROSE AMONG THORNS.

Saturday's all-grass pick four at Golden Gate Fields includes the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, where the two morning-line favorites, Bal a Bali and Gabriel Charles, seem to have the edge. Here's one way to play it.

First, of course, the good news: The first BreezeFigs 2-year-olds to start this year both won—both on Wednesday at Keeneland.  Drafted, a three-under-Par Group 4 graduate of OBSMAR skipped away from a depleted field of three others in the second race to pay $10.20, setting a track record for four-and-a-half furlongs. In the fourth race Capt. Grider an even-Par Group 2 graduate of FTFMAR showed more patience and came from off the pace to pay $7.20. Now, the bad news, Part 1: No 2-year-old races on today’s card.

A couple of difficult maiden races bookend this pick four, but there’s enough information there to still allow you to take a stand.

CONCORSO
Trainer: Dan Hendricks
Last race: April 21, 2nd
Finish: 1st by 4 1/4
Beyer: 74
A second-time starter, this gelding crushed maiden-$20K runners in decisive style. He can fire right back in a starter allowance or, preferably, an N2L claiming race.