Gierkink: Woodbine Horses to Watch for the week of June 29
Gierkink: Woodbine Horses to Watch for the week of June 29
Ron GierkinkJun 29, 2015
Gierkink: Woodbine Horses to Watch for the week of June 29
Trip Notes for June 27-28: Gold Cup at Santa Anita, Iowa Derby, Mother Goose, and more by Michael Hammersly.
Like many other people, I’m having serious second thoughts about the popular current concept of clustering a bunch of stakes on a single race card to create a big event day.
Download DRF Plus handicapping reports for Sunday's races, including DRF Bets GamePlan, the Positive ROI Report, and Key Race Report.
How I’ll play Belmont on Sunday remains a work in progress, depending on the timing of whatever Mother Nature has in store for the Long Island area. At this writing, heavy rain and thunderstorms were forecast as a good bet to pummel the track starting sometime late afternoon or early evening Saturday, possibly lingering into Sunday morning. So it seems as though four scheduled turf races – the second, fourth, eighth, and ninth – are in serious jeopardy, while the main track could wind up a sealed and sloppy quagmire or a harrowed drying-out “good” depending on the timing of things.
Sleepy P (#1, ML 9-5) switches to turf for the first time in Saturday's fifth race at Woodbine, a one-mile maiden special weight race. Since Jan. 1, 2014, trainer Ashlee Brnjas is winning at a 41 percent clip with first-time turf starters, for a return on investment of $5.98.
Hammers Terror (#5, ML 5-1) is in good form and has the back class to suggest he can step up and contend in a weak Grade 2 turf stake, Saturday's eighth race at Churchill Downs, the Firecracker Stakes.
Sunday is not an easy day at Belmont Park. I think a lot of the races are wide open. I am going to try to key a pick three on races 4-6 around Unbridled Juan in the final leg.
Some competitive races toward the back of this closing-day program give a late pick three some appeal.
Download DRF Plus handicapping reports for Saturday's races, including DRF Bets GamePlan, the Positive ROI Report, and Key Race Report.