Racing at Turfway Park.
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Maiden America 1.09.22
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Gulfstream Race 3 - $60K Maiden Special
3yo fillies going one mile
2-Lakota Spirit (5/2), trained by Chad Brown and 6-Favor (2/1), trained by Todd Pletcher, are going to take all the money in this race, with Lakota Spirit being sired by Curlin, an imposing 40% win prop with 1st time starting fillies in a route. Favor has a 6.5 race thus far, where she burned a lot of bettors money at *1.6 odds and finished 4th, 11 lengths back. That was Nov. 27 and she’s been firing bullets in her works at Palm Beach Downs. 40% trainer in this situation, Jonathan Thomas, saddles my choice, 3-Catiche (7/2). Catiche debuted well at Woodbine getting second place and moved to Turfway, where, in Dennis’ Moment style in the Breeders Cup Juvenile, she went down to her knees straight out of the gate. Credit Chris Landeros for having the wherewithal to hang in there and take it easy on her for the remaining race. Today, she is getting Luis Saez for the first time, and he certainly will take her to the lead. She gets a cutback in distance to compensate for the synthetic to dirt change and we will see which fillies can handle the kickback and chasing a front runner.
Gulfstream Race 7 - $60K Maiden Special
3yo fillies going six furlongs
Rather than bet on sure to be heavily favored 10-Lay The Groundwork (7/2), due to Chad Brown training her, I am taking an exotic(s) play with Saffie trained 1-Stellar Ride (15/1), 7-I Cross My Heart and stable and workout partner 4-Frozen Solid, both at 12/1 ml odds. 2-Veterans Highway (5/1) and of course, Chad’s horse goes in, and 8-Walkathon (9/2) finishes out what I am going to do.
For a $.10 super, I will do a five horse box for $12
W/2X Place bet on I Cross My Heart and a $.50 trifecta with I Cross My Heart, Lay The Groundwork and Walkathon over the rest, making it a $30 bet.
Turfway Park Race 3 - $62K Maiden Special
3yo fillies going six furlongs on synthetic
Interesting race and candidly, tougher to handicap. Three of the top six first crop sires, Practical Joke, Caravaggio and number one Gun Runner all having their daughters debuting this afternoon. 13-Traverse (5/1), on the AE list, is my choice. She put up a solid 74 Equibase score in her debut on Dec. 9 and her :47.8 work on Dec. 26 is exactly what attracts. 14-Storm Kiss (8/5) also on the AE list, looks poised well with her speed in her debut before tiring. She put up an 81 Equibase score and with the outside speed bias here, she can get it done. After that, it is a tossup between 9-Pistol (4/1), a daughter of Gun Runner (32% w/first time fillies) 6-Fast Corey (7/2) by Practical Joke and stablemate 7-Rue De Bac (7/2) by Distorted Humor, with the latter two’s sires have an identical record for debuting fillies. Both Rue De Bac and Fast Corey have worked out together their last two, both with very good and equal results of :59.6 and 1:01, and Fast Corey ran that score from the gate. These two are going to chase each other; which could be a great success, or an abject failure. Adding to the mix of first timers is 5-Kockout Kisses (12/1) who is sired by Into Mischief ($24.4M in 2021 progeny earnings), and you have a coin toss.
If I were playing a horizontal ticket, it would be 14-13-9-6-7-5. For a single, Fast Corey’s :59.8 gate work makes my mind up.