Litfin: Belmont pick four for Saturday, Oct. 17
The late pick four with a $300,000-guaranteed pool catches our attention, with a favorable weather forecast that promises to keep the three grass races in the sequence intact.
Dave LitfinOct 17, 2015
The late pick four with a $300,000-guaranteed pool catches our attention, with a favorable weather forecast that promises to keep the three grass races in the sequence intact.
RACE 1: By no means did BLUE ANCHOR (2) beat a field of superstars when winning his maiden at Los Alamitos on Sept. 19, but he did defeat a solid Bob Baffert trainee named Dream Team. Sunday will mark Blue Anchor’s first try against winners, and he possesses enough speed to be involved in the running from the break. HOT LIGHTNING (6) has the advantage of breaking from the outside post in a field that contains a fair amount of speed, and although the blinkers go on, it would seem very likely that he’ll sit off the leaders and attempt to make his move rounding the far turn.
Shotgun Kowboy has his sights set on next month’s Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs after defeating older rivals Friday night in the $175,000 Oklahoma Classics Cup at Remington Park. The race was the richest of eight stakes restricted to horses bred in Oklahoma. The card was worth more than $1 million.
The best 2-year-olds on both gaits showed up at Woodbine Racetrack on Friday night to vie for spots in four $600,000 Breeders Crown finals on October 24. Of the undefeated rookies that entered action, three—Control The Moment, Pure Country and Haughty—escaped unscathed.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale nearly became a casualty of the industry downturn and was briefly canceled. Heading into the 2015 renewal off four straight record-setting performances, the thought seems almost inconceivable. A catalog already large enough to stop a bullet in 2014 was expanded to four days and 1,485 entries for 2015. The yearlings on offer run a broad spectrum, from Book 1 buybacks out of the Keeneland September yearling sale to runners sired in 22 different states, two Canadian provinces, and two countries outside of North America.
Three races Saturday at Santa Anita include legitimate contenders at attractive odds – a comebacking sprint claimer in race 2, two overlays in a turf allowance that is race 6, and an allowance sprinter in race 7. Those three races are the focus of this handicapper’s wagering plan, beginning with a longshot early on the card. It could be a fun Saturday.
Following are horses to watch at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale based on their pedigrees and past auction performance of notable family members. Conformation, physical conformation, veterinarian records, and late pedigree updates were not taken into consideration.
After wins in Grade 1 races earlier this year, Let’s Go Donki and Mikki Queen will try to rebound from recent losses when they start in Sunday’s $1,548,614 Shuka Sho for 3-year-old fillies at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan.
Nine potential Breeders’ Cup starters breezed over a fast track on Friday, and Limousine Liberal and Sticksstatelydude were all but confirmed for the Sprint and Juvenile, respectively, by the time they had finished cooling out after their work.
Trainer Mark Casse, having the best year of his career, was reached Friday after morning work at Churchill Downs and asked what kind of magic spell he would be weaving to win the mile and one-half Pattison Canadian International with the classy miler Kaigun.