Full Salute's form isn't all that glamorous, but with a couple of ungraded stakes triumphs from his last three races, he is a gritty performer with the running style and Beyer Speed Figures to make him a legitimate contender for a minor upset in Saturday's Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
There are four horses in Saturday's Grade 3 Jerome at Aqueduct that hit 90 on the Beyer scale late in their 2-year-old seasons, suggesting this is a race that deserves more than casual attention.
Free: Santa Anita Horses to Watch for week of Dec. 28
Litfin: Aqueduct Horses to Watch for week of Dec. 28, 2015
Trip Notes for December 26-27: Sugar Swirl, Daytona, La Brea, Robert J. Frankel, and more by Michael Hammersly.
DRF handicapper Byron King outlines his strategy for a pick four play on Sunday's program at Gulfstream Park.
If the morning line holds true in race 2 Sunday at Santa Anita, the $75,000 Blue Norther Stakes will offer simultaneous appeal – a low-odds overlay and a favorite to bet against.
The strength of the Saturday card at Gulfstream lies on the back end, and we’ll get to that momentarily, but I do have one early opinion regarding race 4, the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl. STONETASTIC (#2) is kind of an all-or-nothing type of horse, dependent on making the lead. She’s never raced at Gulfstream Park, nor does the barn point to this meet, and really, there are only two races in her past performances that lay over this field.
It’s opening day at Santa Anita, and the nine-race card is chock-full of competitive races. The late pick four sequence boasts tons of quality, with three graded stakes and a salty allowance. Here are some thoughts:
There are certain days on the racing calendar horseplayers await with eager anticipation. The granddaddy of them all is, of course, the first Saturday in May. But in the honorable mention category there is always Dec. 26, when Santa Anita opens for its winter-spring meet.
