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 Sp Wt, 6F] – (4) Bento (B) pressed the pace in his debut at Saratoga in August as a horse that had some buzz about him. [(1) True Myth and (1A) Caress come from barns that do well with first-time starters.] (6) Before You Go Go was third in two starts at Saratoga for Todd Pletcher after being part of the pace and now gets blinkers on. (3) Experimental is a home-bred first-time starter for Klaravich Stables trained by Chad Brown.

2^nd race [Clm 25000 N2L, 1 mi] – (1) Chasing Daylight returns to N2L claiming where she hit the board twice and worked well since racing at Saratoga. (5) Shoopthereitis will make her first appearance in the claiming ranks. She broke her maiden by six lengths at Finger Lakes. (3) Alterina won a maiden claimer at the Spa in her most recent start. (6) K D Kakes returns from a June layoff where she was second for a $16,000 tag and was a voided claim.

7^th race [Alw 50000s, 6F TURF] – (9) Majestic Johnson (B/D) was bet down from 8-1 to 5-1 in his only start of the year which was in June. He was claimed back by Linda Rice for $30,000 after having to idle in traffic. (10) Built to Last (D) has been racing at this starter allowance level and just returned from a three month layoff. (7) King James has two wins and both were on the turf. Last time he was a second in a race that was meant for the grass. (8) Volkert won a N2L claimer in July which was his most recent race. He also has a pair of grass victories.

9^th race [NY, Md 40000, 1 1/16 mi TURF] – (6) English Storm (B) returns from a July layoff which was his first start of the year and he rallied six wide to make up ground. (4) Vince the Prince set the pace for a half mile and finished third back in July. (10) Just for Luck moves back to the turf where he finished second and is now racing for Steve Asmussen. (9) Hari made his debut back in June for Bill Mott who has excellent stats with second-time starters and after long layoffs.

Best bets:  Bento (1^st); Chasing Daylight (2^nd). Best value:  Majestic Johnson (7^th); English Storm (9^th).