Brass Hat has had his prep after recovering from a fractured sesamoid last year. Obviously, after such a long layoff, he was not fully cranked up for the race at Churchill; it was designed to improve his fitness and the fact that he won was an unexpected bonus. (He suffered a codylar fracture in Texas as a 3yo, was off for a year, had a turf prep in which he ran nowhere, then won 3 in a row.)
Let me remind you of this: Brass Hat is intrinsically a better horse than the other horses in this race. He's beaten Magna Graduate by open lengths whenever they have met. He made highly touted East Coasters like Suave and Pollard's Vision look like allowance horses. Ignore him at your peril.
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