There's a lot of pure and stalker speed in this race. It's going to take a huge effort to win on the front end.

Pico Central was excellent early in the year. He came back a short horses off the freshening layoff, but quickly returned to excellent form 2nd off the layoff. Will probably faces a lot of pressure early, middle, or both, but at least he has the rail.

Kela has been in excellent form of late and has a very good race at the distance. He is a closer in a field that is almost certain to produce a lively pace for him to close into. The only question mark I have about him is his age. Very few horses reach this kind of peak at age 6 after so many races and hold it long. If anything, at this age they tend to get sharp for a few races and then head back down quickly. I thought that was a little bit of knock on him in the BC, but he came through with another good effort. The small probability of him heading back down is the only thing that prevents me from thinking he deserves favoritism over Pico Central. Tough call between the two.

Purge is lighty raced and eligible to get better, but it's always tough for me to take a horse off more than a 2 month layoff in a Grade I race. Many horses that run very well off layoffs find the demands of a Grade I off a layoff a little more than they can handle. I want an extra tick or two on the board to compensate for this negative. Might sit a nice stalking race.

Badge of Silver is another with a chance to explode forward, but faces pressure on the front end and "will have to improve" to win.

Lion Tamer hasn't shown enough to win yet, but he has the style to suck up and get a piece of this if some of the better pressers collapse due to the pace.

I think bias (if any) and pace could have a huge impact. As always, the key is price.