Saratoga and Del Mar Tips: Rhetoric to strike for Baffert

Saratoga 21:29: Skellig 1pt win at 3/1 or better

We've had a decent amount of success backing first-time starters at the current Saratoga meet and I'm hoping the well-regarded Skellig can add to that record.

A $235k breeze-up purchase, this son of Girvin appears to have plenty of zip, as you'd expect from one who breezed a couple of furlongs at the sales in sub-21 seconds, and he has been holding his own with some good company in his morning workouts.

His young sire has built up a good record with his limited number of newcomers and it's also worth noting that Skellig is from a precocious family, so is bred to do well early doors.

There are some other interesting newcomers in here, notably the expensively purchased General Jim, who's by super-sire Into Mischief, and some of his workouts look reasonable on paper.

However, he'll have to be sharp to lay up with Skellig early on if that one shows the kind of pace he looks capable of.

Exciting Rhetoric to win again

Del Mar 23:04: Rhetoric 2pts win at 7/4 or better

There are a couple in this optional claimer that have run faster than Rhetoric, but none of them have the same upside as this son of Quality Road, who I fully expect to take this on his way to stakes company.

Bob Baffert's $600k purchase looks a substantial type and he ran a good race at this track on debut last summer when third (promoted to second) behind the smart Forbidden Kingdom.

We then didn't see Rhetoric again until Los Alamitos last month, where he took care of a field of maidens in impressive fashion, looking better the further he went.

It could be that we don't see the best of this one until he tackles 7f+, so there is a slight concern that he's kept to 6f for this assignment, though such is his latent talent that I suspect he'll be able to cope before taking the next step up the ladder.