In coast-to-coast stakes handicapping Saturday, one finds oneself bouncing between the sparse and the inscrutable. If fields aren’t short, they’re riddled with difficult questions. Maybe we have some answers. Sam F. Davis Change of Command, the 3-1 morning-line favorite, is the rare horse to win two races in a row and get an equipment change to “blinkers on.” His Hall of Fame trainer, Shug McGaughey, thinks there’s more to this colt than he’s shown. Maybe there’s not. I’m not taken by anything this colt has done, nor by his physique or manner of traveling. Agate Road, second choice at 7-2, comes in as a last-minute understudy for stablemate Locked. Agate Road, while decent, has been an overrated turf horse from the start, and though he works okay on dirt, the surface is unlikely to improve him. Copper Tax, West Saratoga, and No More Time earned consideration. Copper Tax raced very wide over an inside-speed favoring surface in the Remsen, but also was off the bridle and spinning his wheels at the three-furlong marker. I wonder if this colt wants more than a mile. West Saratoga held his own with many of the better Kentucky 2-year-olds last summer and fall, though his signature win in the Iroquois came with a dream setup. This horse also might prefer a longer one-turn race. No More Time looked in his Jan. 1 race like a colt who’d filled out considerably since his Oct. 22 maiden victory. He made a nice run before tiring late in the Mucho Macho Man, and I would use him in exotics with the horse I prefer, Patriot Spirit. Patriot Spirit brims with raw ability but struggled with the mental side of racing as a 2-year-old. Despite winning his debut impressively, he pulled much too hard that day and was even tougher to handle in the Iroquois, where he got lit up after being brushed by a rival coming out of the chute and ran off at a breakneck pace. A poor start put him behind horses at Keeneland, where jockey Flavien Prat fought desperately to keep Patriot Spirit from running over horses down the backstretch. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The removal of blinkers for the Inaugural on Dec. 2 at Tampa Bay really helped Patriot Spirit, who relaxed far better than in his previous outings. He idled after going clear and had plenty left at the wire, galloping out well in front of the horse who’d closed late ground on him, and Patriot Spirit’s debut gallop-out also suggested a horse who will carry his speed over a route of ground. He’s going to the front under Tampa’s leading rider, and Patriot Spirit might not be passed. San Marcos If Missed the Cut winds up third choice behind Planetario and Balladeer, that makes him the value play in this short field of six. Missed the Cut goes all right on dirt, and over a synthetic surface in November 2022 he beat Algiers, who four months later finished second in the Dubai World Cup. But Missed the Cut’s career peak came at 1 1/4 miles on turf, same distance and course as the San Marcos, and despite the fact connections focused on a dirt campaign last year, the horse probably is better on grass. His Del Mar Handicap was better than it looks on paper, and at nine furlongs the Dec. 26 San Gabriel was too short for Missed the Cut, who failed to change leads and ran into California’s sharpest late-2023 grass horse, Easter. His Feb. 3 work looked very strong, and Missed the Cut need not fall too far behind the pace. Heavenly Prize This is not much race for $150,000, so much so that Cairo Sugar has a chance to post an upset. If ridden aggressively from post 1, Cairo Sugar might make a clear early lead, just like she did about one year ago winning a New York-bred stakes at this one-turn mile configuration. Cairo Sugar caught wet, sealed tracks that might not have suited her in two of her last three starts, and in her most recent race she was trapped on a potentially bad rail much of the trip, showing spark after belatedly being steered outside. Just a 4-year-old, Cairo Sugar has a touch of upside, and were she to improve even marginally upon her performance two back, she might be able to handle some highly suspect shorter prices. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.