Tonight's A1 over Central Park's 491m trip, off at 19:06, is the one to watch on a card that otherwise looks fairly straightforward. Just five go to traps, but it's a genuinely open contest between three dogs with real claims, and the case for each is built on a different kind of evidence.
Droopys Topnotch (trap 2) is the pick, and the reasoning is simple: she clocks the fastest times of anyone in the field and touched a career-best rating of 92 a couple of runs back, the highest ceiling on offer tonight. She was runner-up last time out over this exact course, distance and grade, and has two wins and four places from ten runs here. The knock on her is that she can burn bright early and lose a little shape late, which is where the danger comes in.
That danger is Swift Ubiquity (trap 3), who brings by far the strongest course and distance record in the race, four wins and six places from ten starts at Central Park over this trip, backed by the best suitability figures across track, trap, distance and class of any runner tonight. She's not the fastest on the clock and has a tendency to fade once a strong pace has been set in front of her, but with that level of course form behind her she can't be ignored.
Don't discount Ever So Cheerio (trap 1) either. Three wins and three places from six runs at this course and distance is one of the strongest records in the field, and she's shown she has the knack of turning up when it matters here, even without the flashiest pace figures. Yahoo Maizy (trap 4) landed the box that's produced almost one in four winners in this grade at this trip, and was runner-up last time out, so an each-way interest shouldn't be ruled out.
It's the kind of race where the data points in more than one direction, which is exactly what makes it worth watching.