I see three main contenders in this New York-bred maiden race. Mrs. Orb (1) has already run fast enough to win at this level, but she’s done so going a mile, and now is attempting to win while cutting back to 6 1/2 furlongs. She’s clearly a major player, but she strikes me as more of a grinding router, so I’m not quite convinced that she possesses the speed to win going this trip.

The other two fillies to consider, Makin’ Out and In Denile, debuted in the same race on June 14. Makin’ Out (8) finished well ahead of her rival that day as she made some moderate progress around the turn and stayed on for third. She has a right to improve in her second start, but I’m actually more interested in In Denile at what figures to be a bigger price.

I feel that IN DENILE (9) didn’t get to perform to her true potential in either of her starts at Belmont. She was a bit slow into stride in her debut and finished up decently for fourth in a race where few horses did any passing. Then when stretch out to a mile, I thought she didn’t get the right ride. The pace of that race was moderate and mostly held together up front. After breaking a bit slowly, Irad Ortiz made little effort to get her involved early and allowed her to go extremely wide on the far turn before basically wrapping up on her. She has reportedly trained more forwardly out of that effort, and I think we’ll see a bit more speed out of her this time.