Belmont Friday

- In the 5th today, Barclay Tagg has Pastel Gal, the 8-5 morning line favorite on the turf in the 5th. The Taggster is 23-9-5-2 for the meeting, some pretty impressive numbers. This filly, by Lemon Drop Kid out of a Theatrical mare, got beat at 2-5 in her last, running second and beating several others in this field. I'm not totally sold on her as the chalk here either; she's never actually won on the grass in her four tries on it. So I'll have a look at the exacta box with Blitzen Too(10-1), for Christophe Clement. The trainer broke out of an 0 for 16 start at Belmont which included seven at odds of 2-1 or less, ouch! Of course, when he finally won, it was with a 6-1 shot, March to Victory. You can't keep a good man down for too long, and Blitzen Too (Thunder Gulch) was a well-bet winner graduating on the grass in her last start, in November. Clement wins at a 22% rate with 180+ layoff horses.

In the 6th, Anxiety moves confidently up in class for trainer Frank Alexander, poised to break into the win column with a record of 8-0-2-3 at Belmont thus far. In her last, this daughter of Aptitude capped a winning rally from far back with a final quarter of 23 2/5; and that with Cornelio Velasquez wrapping her up in the final yards. Second place finisher House Quest won her next race by eight, and 4th place finisher Battingstar came back to win as well. Pace to set up her late run is a concern here however, and Sneaky Girl is an interesting entry from David Jacobson. He claimed her out of her last, a sharp six furlong sprint effort on the dirt, switches her to grass and engages Kent Desormeaux for the ride. She showed some good speed on this surface last year, and could get a big jump on this field.