McGee: How I'd play Saratoga on Friday, Aug. 7
I’ll start the day by using a favorite wagering angle: keying a contender in the third and fourth spots in superfectas.
Marty McGeeAug 06, 2015
I’ll start the day by using a favorite wagering angle: keying a contender in the third and fourth spots in superfectas.
Scat Means Go will return to racing in New Mexico on Saturday after recent stakes jaunts to Southern California and Kentucky. She is set for a start in the $50,000 Aspen Cup at Ruidoso Downs following her fifth-place finish in the Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita and third-place effort in the Grade 3 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs.
Regardless of whether or not Triple Crown winner American Pharoah runs, attendance for the Travers Stakes on Aug. 29 at Saratoga will be capped at 50,000, the New York Racing Association announced Thursday.
Jacks or Better Farm has made the occasional splash on a grander scale with such outright stars as Awesome Feather and Jackson Bend, but homebreds out-footing their fellow Florida-breds is what really has carried Fred Brei’s Ocala-based operation in its nearly two decades of existence.
Based on his impressive career debut last month, Master Mick will be difficult to defeat when he steps up to face winners Saturday in the $75,000 Cleveland Kindergarten for Ohio-bred 2-year-olds at ThistleDown.
Trainer Tim Rycroft won the first two stakes at the meet, and he has a big chance to win another with Right Swiftly Mike in the colts and geldings division of the $50,000 Sales Stakes at Northlands Park on Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong dash – restricted to horses foaled in Canada that went through a Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Sale in Alberta or Manitoba – drew eight horses, and Right Swiftly Mike will likely be the one they have to run down.
The $50,000 Sadie Hawkins Stakes on Saturday night at Charles Town can be expected to provide starters for the $150,000 Cavada Stakes on the Oct. 10 West Virginia Breeders’ Classic card.
From a horseplayer’s viewpoint, races don’t get a whole lot better than the Soaring Softly. A full field of 14 filly-mare turfers will go a mile on turf in what shapes up as the best betting race of the “Summer Soiree” card that the Gulfstream racing office has assembled for Saturday.
Unbridled and Three Ring both were Florida-breds who enjoyed easily their best seasons as 3-year-olds. Races in their honor will be renewed as part of the Florida Sire Stakes program Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where the principals would do well to ultimately achieve a fraction of the success as the races’ namesakes.
The $60,000 My Frenchman on Saturday at Monmouth Park is an open-company turf sprint for 3-year-olds and up. It just so happens that three contenders in the 5 1/2-furlong race are New Jersey-breds.