Saratoga Hot List - July 22

Today’s New York Hot List races to watch – Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at Saratoga
                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.

2^nd race – (2) Wicksters Dream was a maiden special winner at Gulfstream Park in September for Kelly Breen and he makes his return now in this $40,000 N2L claimer which is an appropriate level at which to face winners for the first time. (3) Box of Chocolates was claimed out of a second-place finish in a $50,000 N2L race at Churchill Downs by Robertino Diodoro. (7) Bernin’ Thru Gold makes a significant drop out of allowance races where he showed speed. Dropping down to a first-time N2L is a preferred betting angle. (4) Brazen moved from Bob Baffert to Rodolphe Brisset and was a front-end winner of a maiden special weight at Indiana Grand three weeks ago.

4^th race – (5) Macho Jack moves to the barn of Rudy Rodriguez and makes his 2020 debut after last being seen running second at Keeneland in a $50,000 maiden claimer. He drops down to a $40,000 tag for this start. (2) Breithorn will drop into a maiden claimer for the first time for Bill Mott, gets blinkers off, and moves back to the dirt where he was competitive. (4) Brees Bayou will make his second start after a layoff for Bruce Levine following a third at this same level. (6) Yankee Empire finished ahead of the #4 in his last start. He ran third last year at Saratoga in MSW.

7^th race – (5) Cainudothetwist (B) was second in her debut and finished well ahead of the others while shying away from the whip in the stretch run. Experienced gained on the track is a big plus. (10) Sainte Mere Eglise debuted last summer at Saratoga and ran second after slow start. She has not been seen since then but comes but in a similar maiden special weight for NY-breds on the turf. (1) Madison Parc switches back to the turf where she ran her first career start and finished fourth. She will now face state-breds for the first time in her career. (6) Gaelic Gold ran into traffic problems in her career debut at Tampa Bay Downs for Christophe Clement. Joel Rosario gets on board as she gets to face NY-breds for the first time.

8^th race – (6) La Hara won both of his starts for Chad Brown, a maiden claimer and then a starter allowance, and is still eligible for this NW1 allowance on the turf. (4) Smile Bryan was a convincing winner of a starter allowance when he moved back to the turf for Graham Motion. He now has run on the grass twice with his two best performances. (2) Wild Medagliad’oro used his early speed to run third in a state-bred stakes race at Gulfstream Park last time out for Mark Casse. Turf seems to be his best surface. (5) Gauguin performed consistently at this level for Bill Mott. He was second after a winter freshening and will be right there at the wire.

Best bets:  Macho Jack (4^th); La Hara (8^th). Best value:  Wicksters Dream (2^nd); Cainudothetwist (7^th).