The two horses with experience are likely to take the bulk of the play here. Elegant Zip (6) is the one who figures to attract the most attention off her strong runner-up finish in a fast maiden heat July 25. She ran a very professional race for a barn that is not known for firing first time out. This filly broke alertly, chased the pace 3- to 4-wide on the turn and stayed on well in the lane while only briefly threatening the winner. She certainly has a right to take a step forward in her second start, but it’s not as if she needs to improve at all to win this.

I’m certainly using her, but I actually prefer the other second-time starter, TOSSUP (3). This filly comes out of a stakes race that was actually more akin to the maiden field Elegant Zip exits in terms of overall quality. Even though the final speed figure came up very slow, Tossup ran extremely well within the context of that race. She did not break that alertly and found herself shuffled to the back of a well-bunched field in the early going. Joe Bravo clearly had plenty of horse underneath him, so he made a premature, wide move around the far turn, rocketing past the entire field to challenge for the lead at the quarter pole. It briefly looked as if she was going to go on and win, but she ended up lugging in while tiring in the final eighth of a mile. All things considered, she did well to hang on for second, and seems like a perfect candidate to take a step forward in her second start. I know Rick Violette doesn’t have the strongest statistics with this move, but Tossup has apparently worked well since her debut and I think she’s the type that can buck that trend.