Belmont Park Hotlist - April 29

Today’s New York Hot List races to watch – Thursday, April 29, 2021 at Belmont Park
                By Matt Shifman and Bob Ehalt

Hot List Key:
 A: A preferred horse to watch                         B: Secondary horse to watch
*C: Went down 2 or more betting notches and finished 1st through 3rd
*D: Went down 2 or more betting notches and finished 4^th or worse
* - 4 or more betting notches if 11-1 or more.

1^st race [Md 40000, 1 1/16 TURF] – (5) Holy Emperor returns to Belmont Park from Santa Anita where trainer Rob Falcone Jr. spent the winter. Out there, the gelding ran second twice for a $50,000 tag. (4) Big Easy Empire made a huge improvement when he moved from dirt to turf at Fair Grounds in February for Michael Stidham. He has been off since then. (8) Johnnypump returned to the turf at Aqueduct and finished third after a couple of months off. He shows up today as a new gelding for Mike Maker. (7) Centurion came back from more than a year layoff in a turf sprint that looked a lot like a prep for this spot for Jimmy Jerkens.

5^th race [OC 80k/N1X, 1 1/16 TURF] – (3) Technical Analysis broke her maiden in November at the Big A just before turf racing ended for the winter in New York. She did train in Florida at Chad Brown’s winter base. (5) Caldee also makes her 2021 debut after a strong juvenile year where she was second behind Plum Ali in the Miss Grillo (G2). (7) Earth Strike began racing in Ireland at top tracks and moved to Mark Casse’s barn. At Fair Grounds, she was second in an allowance and third in a stake. (4) Island Treasure actually beat the top choice in her maiden breaking race in November at Belmont for Shug McGaughey and has been off since running fourth in a stake at Aqueduct in November.

7^th race [Alw 92000 N1X, 1 1/16] – (4) Hometown broke his maiden in his 2021 debut for Chad Brown after a layoff from July. The 4-year-old got a big speed figure for that effort. (1A) Dust Devil/(1) Indian Counselor make a formidable entry for Mertkan Kantarmaci. Both have riders named so are likely to run. (3) Vintage Hollywood won an open $32,000 claimer in his last start. The Noda barn has shown signs of heating up after a quiet winter. (6) Obsessed was claimed for Todd Pletcher out of a N2L victory last time by trainer Tom Morley.

8^th race [OC 80k/N2X, 1 1/4 TURF] – (9) Malthael (A) returned to the turf after a layoff from January and fought his rider who tried to restrain him in the early going. Tom Morley takes the blinkers off in response as he runs for the claiming option. (3) Mr. Alec has been off since November for Christophe Clement with several efforts that could win this race. (2) Dynadrive was last seen racing in stakes with two prior wins in claimers from which he was taken. (5) Utmost returns from a long layoff and changes barns from Graham Motion to that of Jonathan Thomas. He has a Grade 2 win in Woodbine in his PPs.

Best bets:  Technical Analysis (5^th); Hometown (7^th). Best value:  Holy Emperor (1^st); Malthael (8^th).