Hammersly: How I'd play Santa Anita for Saturday, June 20
DRF handicapper Michael Hammersly provides his analysis for a pick three play on Saturday's card at Santa Anita.
Michael HammerslyJun 19, 2015
DRF handicapper Michael Hammersly provides his analysis for a pick three play on Saturday's card at Santa Anita.
Blaine Wright has never won a training title at Emerald Downs, or anywhere, for that matter, but he’s thinking 2015 might be the perfect time for a breakthrough.
The colts entered in the $125,000 Santa Anita Juvenile (race 4) are not as fast as the 2-year-old fillies in the Landaluce Stakes on Sunday, but so what?
Jack Tripp will be on a slight stretch-out that figures to favor his up-close running style when he faces seven other 3-year-olds in Sunday’s seventh-race allowance at Churchill Downs.
The Northbound Pride Oaks, a turf race at about one mile for 3-year-old fillies Sunday at Canterbury Park, is headed by stakes winner Mizz Money and the Mike Maker-trained Walking the Kitten.
For the first time in 43 years, two horses with Trotter of the Year honors to their credit will meet when Bee A Magician and Shake It Cerry clash in Saturday’s C$272,000 Armbro Flight Stakes for older female trotters at Mohawk Racetrack in Ontario.
Jockeys Rafael Bejarano and Gary Stevens will each have a new agent in July.
Hoppertunity, the three-time stakes winner who was third in the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 13, may make a quick turnaround for the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 27.
The pace in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita will be legitimate, thanks to Big Cazanova. Trainer Peter Miller said the Grade 3-winning front-runner was on target for the mile and one-quarter Gold Cup.
Trainer Jason Servis saddles Exclusive Strike (#9, ML 5-1) in Friday's fifth race at Belmont Park, a one-mile claiming race on turf. Since Jan. 1, 2014, Sefvis is winning at a 32 percent clip in claiming races, for a return on investment of $2.15.