Bernier: Del Mar pick three play for Wednesday, July 23

While Sunday’s pick three was a success ($46.60 returned on a $25 worth of tickets through DRF TicketMaker), by no means was it a major score. While I’m slightly fearful the same thing could be said about the opening three-race sequence for Wednesday’s card, I’m willing to give it another shot.

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First race: Maiden-claiming $80,000, 5 1/2 furlongs on Polytrack

* Nicole Michelle brings experience to the table, which is a major benefit when it comes to 2-year-olds. Her debut effort was a decent one at Emerald Downs and today she’ll receive Lasix for the first time in her career.

* Stealth Drone and Shez a Masterpiece have trainers that do wonderfully with debut juveniles.

* Stealth Drone’s trainer, Peter Miller, is 6 of 22 over the past year with first-time starters in maiden-claiming events.

* Shez a Masterpiece is trained by Craig Dollase. Over the past five years, Dollase is 10 for 38 (22 in the money, $3.23 return on investment) with 2-year-old first-time starters.

As C's, I’ll include Danette (racing experience, still needs to show more; Curlin as a sire on synthetic surfaces has been very poor) and Hennythelovepenny (has shown some nice works over the past six weeks; although she’s the morning-line favorite, feel like she’s the lesser of the two Peter Miller entrants).

Second race: Statebred maiden special weight, 1 1/16 miles on turf

* Warren’s Super Cat makes her career debut as a 4-year-old here, and she sports a nice work tab that would suggest trainer Jorge Gutierrez has her ready to go. There should be some mild concern that sire Affirmative’s first-time starters only hit at a 3% clip.

* Three Blondes has had more than her fair share of opportunities to break her maiden, but the addition of Rafael Bejarano should be viewed at as a major upgrade from the services of her previous rider.

* Susan B Good appears to be the filly not only with the most upside in general, but the filly who is most likely to graduate on Wednesday. Her latest effort at Santa Anita on June 29 was a winning one, and if she continues with her trend of steadily increasing Beyer Speed Figures, she’ll be tough to beat.

Third race: Claiming $16,000, 1 mile on Polytrack

* Four horses appear to stand out to me in this field of eight, and Warrens Lil Margie would appear to be the one to beat. Her only victory came at the distance, she’s going from $25,000 non-winners-of-two claiming company to open $16,000 claiming company, and I feel as though the stretch-out from seven furlongs back to a two-turn race will do her well

* Gia Is a Bella sports the best Beyer Speed Figures in the entire field, but they were all accomplished on grass. Should she translate her grass form over to the Polytrack, she’ll be a tough customer to handle here.

* Winninginfashion appears to be the true speed of the race, and I’d expect her to be on the lead. She earned the highest last-out Beyer Speed Figure, but her penchant for being beaten at short odds isn’t very reassuring

* Silic’s Valley is the true wild card to the race. She’s 1 for 13 in her career, but that one victory came going two turns here at Del Mar. If she can run back to that effort two years ago, she’ll be a force against this weak group of fillies and mares.

The play: