Aqueduct | Race 8 | Post Time 5:02 p.m. (ET)   Chuck Willis (#3) will be tough for this field to handle if he runs as well as he did two back on Jan. 12. Making his first start off the claim for Wayne Potts, he quickly spurted clear through fast fractions but still had enough left to hold off the classy Big Engine in the stretch. He earned a massive 119 TimeformUS Speed Figure for that performance, which absolutely towers over the numbers that his rivals have earned recently. Yet even Chuck Willis’s surrounding efforts would beat this field. He regressed slightly last time but still ran well in defeat at the starter-allowance level after chasing outside against a rail bias. Now he drops back in against claiming company looking to lead throughout. However, this improvement on dirt has been sudden and somewhat unexpected. It remains to be seen if it will endure, and I’m not willing to take a short price finding out.   Victorious Wave (#4) exits the same Feb. 4 starter allowance, where he didn’t run quite as well as Chuck Willis. He was saving more ground early and just lacked punch through the stretch. He has prior races that make him dangerous against this field, but might be going off form for Chris Englehart.   Form is the major question for many horses in this $32K claimer, many of which run plenty of races in their past that would put them in the winner’s circle here. Mister J T (#1) might be one that’s actually headed in the right direction as he makes his second start off a layoff. He has primarily been most competitive in cheaper claiming races than this, but it is interesting that his connections got so ambitious off the layoff last time, running him in an N1X allowance. He wasn’t disgraced finishing fifth and might be capable of better as he drops into a more realistic spot.     My top pick is another horse in solid form. Bustin Shout (#2) is stepping up in class after competing in a series of $16K and $25K claiming events. Yet he’s earned his chance against tougher company after running deceptively well in a few races surrounding that lone recent victory on Jan. 4. He didn’t get an ideal trip that day, held up in traffic until upper stretch before unleashing his rally. Then last time he was racing wide against a rail bias against a solid rival in Writer’s Regret, who returned to finish a respectable third against allowance company. Bustin Shout is making his first start off the claim for Potts, and I like the confidence being displayed with this class hike, especially in light of that quick workout 10 days ago. He also possesses a complementary running style to his uncoupled stablemate and retains Gokhan Kocakaya, who has been piloting him well.