The sun is out and we are fast & good at Saratoga on Friday.

The feature is the nine-furlong Curlin for 3yos with a field of only five. Hofburg is way the horse to beat there and I had no interest in trying to go against him.

Let's look at some other spots.

Race 3:  I'm just taking a shot with Ride on Faith in this race, not that he's going to be the 6:1 ML with the scratch of Change of Venue, who I was going to be happy to bet against. 

Ride on Faith was odd on when prevailing over maiden claimers at Belmont when last seen but he was an easy winner there and he has sprinted effectively in the past. 

Race 5: With top pick Call Me a Star scratching out I'll move to Candy Zip on top in an effort to make likely favorite Stoney Bennet prove that he can still run.  Stoney Bennet is tough here if back to his early form, but he had gone badly off form prior to the layoff. He is a new gelding for his return with a trainer change to Linda Rice. 

Candy Zip lost his rider up here as a 2yo after taking some money but he returned to win at Belmont from off the pace after going a bit greenly early through some kickback. He shows up with a series of longer works for his 3yo debut for a good layoff trainer.

Race 7: Saida won three of the first four turf starts of her career last year as a 3yo before heading to California to go down the hill in a bunch of races where she couldn't get near the early lead. She returned east last month for a dangerous trainer and got caught wide on a pressured pace in a race that went to closers.

Race 8: I'm against ML favorite Uncle Mojo in this race. Forget his last race in the Stephen Foster where he didn't belong, but his other races give him no edge on this field. I want to bet Sir Ballentine at anything around his ML odds. This horse really improved in his first two starts for Danny Gargan while putting in a pair of strong runs through the stretch and he was kept close chasing in a race that fell apart late over a sloppy track last time.

Virtual Machine is the other horse for me after getting back to a good race last time at Monmouth. He likes two turns and has run some big races in the past.