Just a quick post this Saturday as it's a fairly slow weekend while we wait for the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Today's Dwyer Stakes, however, could feature horses that may decide to take a shot in the Belmont Stakes in four weeks with the headliner of the group being the 2/1 morning line favorite, 2-Drosselmeyer.
Had he gotten off to a little quicker start as a juvenile, Drosselmeyer probably would have been able make it into the Kentucky Derby. As it was, he tried graded stakes company for the first time in the Risen Star where he finished fourth, followed up by a third place finish in the Louisiana Derby. This colt has a pretty big class edge on this field but he might need to stay a little closer to what may be a middling pace in order to run his best race.
It looks like it's going to be a wet one at Belmont today but there's not a lot of wet track experience within this field. Drosselmeyer and 1-Carnivore (10/1) has both run over "Good" tracks in the past but never a track that's rated any worse than that. Belmont's main track was sealed this morning.
The Dwyer isn't packed with a lot horses that want to get out and run on the front end which could make things nice for Carnivore down on the rail. He didn't do much running in the Wood, but he shown flashes of speed in the past and perhaps he'll settle in a bit better today.
5-Remand (3/1) looks like the strongest upset possibility based off a strong run in the Grade 3 Bay Shore against Eightyfiveinafifty. He should also have plenty of tactical speed on the stretch-out from seven furlongs. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that he showed up in the Bay Shore with front bandages for the first time.