Looks to me like a really good TGraph play today in the 7th at Belmont, if the morning line comes close to holding up. You have Levine's Clever Electrician returning off an 8 month layoff. He ran a top of around 1.5 last year as a 5 year old. He comes in with a 123 pound impost.

Legislature comes into the race off a three race pattern of 1.75, 18, 1.75 and carries 116 pounds, with the 18 coming at in a 1 1/4 mile race.

Legislature is 7-2 on the morning line, with Clever Electician 7-5. On Beyer figures, the last race for Legislature looks slow, with only an 83 beyer, but like I said, with a 1.75 Tgraph figure, the horse looks fast enough.

As a six year old, off an extended layoff, not sure that Clever Electrician can fire a new top, and even if he pairs his top, at the weights, he still could lose. Makes him an underlay in my book. Doubt I get 7-2 on Legislature in the short field, but even at 5-2 looks like a great bet to me. For added confidence, Hushion is on fire at Belmont, going 12 for his last 35.

The question for JB is in assessing the pattern of Legislature. The T-Graph pattern shows a pair-x-pair, which is correct. The T-Graph pattern assesses the last three races, regardless of distance or surface. In this case, the horse ran the lousy race at a distance of 1 1/4 miles. Based on the big figures at short distances, it seems to me to be very plausible to ignore this race completely in assessing the horse's form. The "x" was probably not due to his form cycle but due to the distance (IMO). So, I am handicapping this race almost as if the horse is coming in off of paired 1.75, which would make him much more likely to either pair up or even run a new top.

Just wondering if you (or other T-Graph players), make the same assumptions when you see a lousy race at either a new surface or distance, or is it going too far to consider the horse coming into this race as having paired up his 1.75's.

Jim