Beer: How I'll play Saratoga for Saturday, Aug. 6
How the Daily Racing Form's Mike Beer will play Saratoga on Saturday, Aug. 6
Early Pick 4
Race 2: Tough opening leg of the early pick 4 contains 10 2-year-olds, nine of them first-time starters. The board may point in a particular direction, but until then Practical Joke (#8) and Hieroglyphics (#7) are the two I’ll focus on. The former debuts for Chad Brown, who isn’t known for first-out success with 2-year-olds in dirt sprints, but has won with three of them up here over the past two meets, all for this owner. Dam of Practical Joke won each of her first two starts as a juvenile, both by big margins sprinting at Saratoga. The latter the obligatory Todd Pletcher firster that must be used after bringing a big ticket following 10.1 work back in March. Will keep an open mind about making adjustments once the wagering starts.
Race 3: Grand Sky (#8) will be the main focus of the ticket. He appears to clearly prefer sprinting to routing, and he is now second off the layoff after breaking slowly and getting caught in some traffic down inside in his first start back. Defeated a better field than this to break his maiden at the end of last year. The main backup will be the inside speed, Euros to Dollars (#1).
Race 4: Summer Revolution (#3) has the advantage of a recent race on his main competition, and it was a good one when rolling over maidens in the stretch en route to a 90 Beyer. I will use Neolithic (#6) in equal strength, despite the 238-day layoff. He was an impressive late-season 2-year-old, and think he has a chance to be pretty good for Pletcher, who is excellent off of layoffs. Knights Key (#1) could make the play as a backup, as he overcame a very slow start to catch up to, and then close down, maidens in his only start as a 2-year-old.
Race 5: Tough 5th race likely goes through the two Chad Brown trainees, Tricked Up (#1) and Butler Field (#2), both of whom are expected to come forward quickly from respective debuts, where they showed something to work on. It is difficult to leave them out, but I want to use Sport (#5) on the main ticket, as he has shown some ability from the start, and I think he may really appreciate getting cut back in distance after failing to see out longer trips at Belmont. Ballagh Rocks (#7) is also part of the play, as he returns from the layoff. He raced very greenly first time out, but was much more forward, and very unlucky when bumped hard late, in his second start.