Top pick: #5 (First Constitution) (9-2) - First Constitution keeps getting longer races and excels, finishing first, third, and first in three races this year, all over one mile. The horse hit a 100 Beyer Speed Figure this year for the first time, then won the nine-furlong Jazil four weeks ago at Belmont by 6 3/4 lengths.
2nd pick: #1 (Lone Rock) (2-1) - Lone Rock is a late bloomer having won eight of its last 10 races. The last two have been at 1 1/2 miles, winning the Isaac Murphy Marathon and the Temperence Hill Stakes. He's one of the best distance specialists in the country, winning the Isaac Murphy by 7.5 lengths while holding off Last Samurai late in the Temperence Hill. And in Lone Rock's last six races at this 1 1/2 mile distance, the horse has won five of them with one second place finish.
3rd pick: #7 (Fearless) (3-1) - Fearless has finished first or second in five straight races. He was stretched out to 1 1/8 in the last two and won the Ghostzapper by six lengths while finishing second at the Oaklawn Handicap the last time out, a race he also ran second back in 2021.