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 worst
* - 4 or more betting notches if 11-1 or more.

8^th race [Md Sp Wt, 5 ½ F TURF] – (7) Lamorna (A) returned from a winter layoff and got banged around, shuffled back, and stuck in traffic. (2) Tipple will make her debut for Linda Rice with three bullet works showing from this month. (4) Arrasou ran twice last year at Saratoga both times in races that came off the turf and hit the board in each. Now she makes her 2024 debut for Chad Brown and Irad Ortiz. (6) Satin Blue had a pair of seconds in Kentucky races this year and also tried twice to get on the grass.

9^th race [OC 80k/N1X, 1 1/16 mi TURF] – (12) Risk Tolerance (A) was an impressive 3-1 debut winner for Chad Brown. (10) Drunk On Sake (B) broke last, got rushed up to the lead in a Grade 3, and now drops back to an appropriate level. (8) West Hollywood began his career at Kempton Park in England, moved to Brad Cox, broke his maiden impressively at Churchill, and then set the pace to finish second when facing winners. (1) Sea Singer was a winner in Ireland and then raced three times in California most recently getting fourth in the Cinema Stakes at Santa Anita.

10^th race [Jim Dandy (G2), 1 1/8 mi] – (1) Sierra Leone returns following his third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga and his narrow loss in the Kentucky Derby. The Chad Brown runner gets an ideal pace set-up in which he is the only closer and all the other horses in the field want to be part of the early pace. (6) Fierceness opted to run in the Jim Dandy instead of the Haskell. Remember, that he was a debut maiden winner at Saratoga by more than 11 lengths on his way the becoming the 2-year-old champion. He was last seen finishing 15^th in the Kentucky Derby. (2) Seize the Grey comes back from his 12^th place finish in the Belmont following his victories in the Preakness and the Pat Day Mile (G2). (3) Batten Down needed four starts before he won his maiden race which happened at Churchill Downs in April. Trainer Bill Mott then sent him to Thistledown where he won the Ohio Derby (G3) with a front-end effort.

11^th race [NY, Alw 95000 N1X, 1 1/16 mi TURF] – (2) Rabaja (A) was an easy five-length winner of his maiden last month with a front-end effort in his second start of the year. (7) Topic Changer (D) was bet down from 15-1 to 8-1 following a 13-month layoff. He made a late rally to get into contention and finished a close fourth. (1) Clear Conscience was third and then second in two starts this year at Aqueduct. (9) Ez Roll had a pair of third-place finishes in his only starts of this year.

Best bets:  Sierra Leone (10^th); Rabaja (11^th). Best value:  Lamorna (8^th); Risk Tolerance (9^th).

Saturday Pick 3 Special --
The Saturday Special $1 Pick 3 covers races 8-10 and includes the Jim Dandy (G2) à 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 with 1, 3, 8, 10, 12 with 1 = $25.