Top pick: #4 (Clairiere) (4-1) - Clairiere is in bounce-back mode after finishing fifth at the Personal Ensign Stakes in August, her last race. She was rambunctious in the starting gate, injured her tongue, then got off to a slow start. But Clairiere had won the previous two races, including a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure for the Ogden Phipps victory in June. In 15 races, all on dirt, Clairiere has six wins, four second-place finishes, and two in third-place. She lost the Personal Ensign Stakes race to Malathaat - but beat Malathaat in the previous two races as they finished 1-2.
2nd pick: #1 (Malathaat) (3-1) - Five races in 2022 for Malathaat have ended in three wins and two second-place finishes to Clairiere. She's at Keeneland again after winning the Spinster Stakes here four weeks ago, also on dirt at this same 1 1/8-mile. Malathaat has won two straight, a 5-length victory at the Spinster and a half-length win in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga. And in three races at Keeneland over the last two years, she won them all.
3rd pick: #6 (Nest ) (9-5) - This three-year-old filly has ran eight races over the last 11 months and finished first six times and second twice. Nest can accelerate quickly, evident last month in a win at the Beldame Stakes by 9 lengths at this same 1 1/8-mile distance. She also finished second at the 2022 Belmont Stakes behind Mo Donegal despite a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.