Litfin's preview: Opportunity knocks in CCA Oaks
Untapable awaits the Haskell, and so Sunday’s Coaching Club American Oaks presents an excellent opportunity for six 3-year-old fillies to garner a Grade 1 title.
Dave LitfinJul 19, 2014
Untapable awaits the Haskell, and so Sunday’s Coaching Club American Oaks presents an excellent opportunity for six 3-year-old fillies to garner a Grade 1 title.
On Rainbow Bridge finished sixth in Saturday’s Ontario Damsel Stakes, and will be scratched from the seven-furlong Duchess on Sunday, leaving a field of eight 3-year-old fillies, half of whom are trained by Mark Casse.
DRF Plus daily Gameplan for Del Mar on Sunday, July 20.
With the introduction of 50 cent pick fours and pick fives, I have become almost exclusively a multi-race exotics player. I understand there can be a downside to this by letting potential exacta and trifecta winners go by in pursuit of a pick something you might not hit. But this is where I am right now.
DRF Plus Daily Gameplan for Saratoga on Sunday, July 20.
The nine juveniles entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Sanford Stakes, the first graded stakes of the year for 2-year-old males in New York, fall into three categories: The 1-2 finishers from Belmont’s Tremont Stakes June 20; the 1-2 finishers from the G3 Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs June 28; and several second-time starters who won their debuts.
DRF handicapper Dan Illman takes a closer look at juveniles running at Saratoga.
“Non-favorite-single” is the theme of a three-leg sequence (races 7-9) Saturday at Del Mar, where the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap is the anchor. The objective is to get live to Morning Fix, listed at 6-1.
Here come the 2-year-olds. They swamped the entries on Saturday at Del Mar, where a maiden special weight was split. It will be run as races 1 and 5.
While I like several horses on the July 19 card, the races fell in such a way that leveraging those opinions in pick-whatevers was difficult. In the end, I settled for a late pick four on races 8-11.