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We’re about a week and a half away from our Breeders’ Cup Championship weekend and it’s going to be an exciting few days. In the meantime, we’ll keep busy with some Wednesday races from Keeneland. I’m expecting fast, firm and cloudy conditions. After a stellar September had a tough run so far in October so we need to finish strong. Let’s get to work!!
Keeneland:
Race 4: Bench - 2 pts win - BEST BET (US Morning Line Odds: 12/1)
Allowance runners sprint 5½ furlongs on turf. All eyes will be on Donegal Mischief, who breaks from the outside for trainer Brad Cox, after a blowout maiden score in July at Evangeline Downs in Louisiana, winning by more than 10 lengths. He gets a trainer change and it’s hard to knock that effort, but he had a dream trip on the rail and faces tougher today. Cox is also not having his usual lights-out Keeneland meet as he’s just an ‘ordinary’ 17%. Bench is intriguing to me at 12/1. He breaks from the rail and will be returning from a 674-day layoff for trainer Carlo Vaccarezza. Bench nearly won a turf-sprint debut at 24/1 and won his second start at Turfway Park - a race that saw the second, third, fourth, seventh and eighth place finishers win their next start. Believe it or not. This isn’t Vaccarezza’s longest returning layoff runner. He returned Little Jewel off a 946-day break to miss by just ¾ of a length. This guy has been working since August and I look for him to show high speed from the gate as we look to speed-pop this field and take them gate to wire.
Best of luck to all our members playing Wednesday’s races from Keeneland!