Hersh: How I'd play Santa Anita for Sunday, March 20
DRF handicapper Marcus Hersh outlines his strategy for playing a pick four on Sunday's program at Santa Anita.
Marcus HershMar 20, 2016
DRF handicapper Marcus Hersh outlines his strategy for playing a pick four on Sunday's program at Santa Anita.
There aren’t any stakes races on Sunday’s card at Gulfstream Park, but several excellent betting events highlight the program. Here are a few thoughts:
Saturday’s card at Santa Anita isn’t one of the better ones we’ve ever seen, and the featured event, the Grade 1 Santa Margarita, is a race I have zero interest in playing. I’ll play a small pick five ticket on the opening five races of the card.
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With two stakes, the Razorback Handicap and Rebel, falling in the late pick four Saturday at Oaklawn, that wager looks like one of the more potentially rewarding bets of the day. So, let’s take a look at the sequence and put together a DRF TicketMaker play, with the capitalized horses ranked either as ‘A’ or ‘B’ runners based on their chances of winning.
Saturday’s card at Gulfstream Park is a quality one with several interesting betting races. Unfortunately, weather might get in the way. As of this writing on Friday, the National Weather Service is calling for a chance of showers Saturday in Hallandale Beach, Fla. With that in mind, I’ll focus on the three main-track races that interest me the most.
BreezeFigs Quick-Pix for Saturday, March 19th by Bob Fierro and Jay Kilgore.
In Saturday's Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn I suspect many will be looking for wagering alternatives to beat Suddenbreakingnews, the upset winner of last month's Southwest that was installed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite. I can understand the reasoning, given that his five prior starts at Remington Park suggested he would fit better long term in a race like the Oklahoma Derby than the big one in Kentucky.
Cupid, the lone Santa Anita shipper in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, is the logical alternative to Suddenbreakingnews, and is my play.
The wait for fast 3-year-olds officially ended last Saturday when first Destin improved on his 91 Beyer Speed Figure in the Sam Davis with a 100 while winning the Tampa Bay Derby. A half-hour later at Santa Anita, Danzing Candy hit triple digits with a 100 in his San Felipe win.