Unfortunately, Baltic Heights has already been scratched. The reason I checked was the suspicion & hope that Frankel will scratch half of the entry & that the half will be Midas Eyes. That would make the race even more wide open, & given the reports that Smokey had a quarter crack before his last race, it would be a lot easier to take a strong stand against him than it will be against his stablemate. I'm not sure I follow the comment that Blazonry didn't fire his best shot off the last layoff, assuming the reference is to the 7 mo. period between his last race in Europe & the 4/2 race at SA, as I thought the 4.5 was a significant new top, particularly given that he was also racing on a new surface in a new country in a new direction for new connections. And although I am not familiar enough with trainer Walsh to assess whether or not layoffs are her speciality, the stats from a limited sample say that more than 31% run new tops when the last start was 90 days or more. The horse is lightly raced & has a lot of upside, seems to me to be favored by the likely pace scenario, & has already run a number at this specialist distance which in the vicinity of what I'm guessing it will take to win this. I'm not sure I'd assess his chances of winning as high as 6-1, but the closer he is to 10-1 the more I'm interested.

As if retirement of the horse is not enough incentive, with only 5 days to go Asmussen is 2 behind Lake in total wins nationwide, & Posse in his last race ran a number which is fast enough to win this. However, he did so on a track he loves against a small & not particularly deep field, & in addition to the possibility that he moves up on an off track,it's hard to shake the image of him dramatically shortening stride in the late stages of the Riva Ridge. He obviously might win, but 4-1 seems very short to me in this much deeper field.

If you haven't figured it out already, you're not going to be able to watch or wager on this one unless you're at a track or OTB and/or have an Xpress bet acct. Magna is no longer accepting bets on its tracks from other acct wagering services, & has installed a monthly fee to provide video streaming of its races to those who either do not have an Xpress Bet acct or live in a state(NJ&Texas,among others)where it is impossible to open one.