[BGboothA]

7 – UPSTART – Our top rated horse is the morning line favorite and for good reason, he has already destroyed most of these horses last time out in the Holy Bull here at Gulfstream Park back in the end of January. His 5 length win didn’t leave much to the imagination and a similar run puts him right where he needs to be to win this one again. The one concern is his pedigree for the classic distance, his HBD Pedigree score is a scary -6, tied with BlueGrass Singer for the worst in the field.

6 – FROSTED – The only ++ rated horse in the field and coming 2^nd off layoff, this is the horse that will likely give Upstart the best run coming at the wire. And he will likely be the next horse in line coming after BlueGrass Singer just off the pace. This is a solid horse who has never finished worse than 2^nd place in his 5 career starts, and has the highest HBD classic distance pedigree rating of +7. If someone pops and runs a big race it wouldn’t be a surprise if its Frosted.

2 – BLUE GRASS SINGER – Will likely be on the lead and will have the rail without much issue. Fact is we are at Gulfstream and the lead is the lead. Fact is the winner of the race is going to have to pass Bluegrass at some point to take this thing. He finished third his last time out after leading for the first three quarters of the race only to be passed by our top two picks on the turn. Yet, here we are with another horse that is looking at a horrible HBD classic distance pedigree rating of -6. I am not sure the 1 1/16 mile distance is in him.

5 – ITSAKNOCKOUT – Here is the big unknown in the field undefeated in two starts including a very impressive 5 length win at a mile here at Gulfstream in the beginning of January. I am not thrilled at his 4/1 morning line and I would like to see that number jump up to 5 or 6-1 to find some more value here.

[BGboothA]

Its a Knockout, knocked it out!