Bernier: How I'll play Santa Anita on Saturday, June 24
Saturday’s card at Santa Anita features two Grade 3 stakes races on the main track: the Affirmed for 3-year-olds and the Precisionist for 3-year-olds and up. A midcard pick-three sequence begins with the Affirmed and concludes with the Precisionist; I’ll focus on that three-race stretch.
RACE 4 – AFFIRMED
BATTLE OF MIDWAY (2) is the horse to beat in the Affirmed, but I’m not completely sold on him being a standout in this event. His two most recent races were both credible, running third in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Santa Anita Derby after pressing hot fractions throughout in each race. After a brief freshening, this Jerry Hollendorfer trainee is a logical favorite. The alternative is ARMS RUNNER (5) for Peter Miller; a $525,000 son of Overdriven, this colt has been visually strong in each of his two starts. The big questions surrounding Arms Runner pertain to distance and surface; each of his races has come on the downhill turf course, and here he stretches out to two turns on dirt for the first time. I may be proven wrong, but I think there’s a chance that Arms Runner is every bit as talented – if not more – than Battle of Midway.
RACE 5
SPIN ME A KISS (4) has the speed-figure advantage over this field, but she’s been gone for a few weeks following her maiden score May 5. She’s a logical contender and one who I’ll be using in the middle leg of this pick three. LADY ESPIONAGE (9) defeated Spin Me a Kiss two starts back when winning her maiden and most recently had the misfortune of running into an incredibly sharp runner named Algorhytmic. There looks to be plenty of pace signed on here to help set up her late finish going down the hill. A bit of an intriguing runner for Mark Glatt is CORDIALITY (7). Admittedly not the likeliest of winners, this Papa Clem filly has only tried turf once, and it was going a route of ground. She’ll turn back in distance off an incredibly long layoff, so there’s a chance that this is nothing more than a prep for something longer. Nonetheless, she’s interesting at a price and worth adding to a ticket.
RACE 6 – PRECISIONIST
There are a number of accomplished runners in this five-horse field, but if COLLECTED (4) runs as well as he did in either of his prior two starts in 2017, he’s going to be very tough to beat. This Bob Baffert trainee was gone for quite some time following a poor effort over the slop in the 2016 Preakness, and it looks as though the time away did him some good; he’s returned as a 4-year-old to earn Beyer Speed Figures of 101 and 104. His tactical speed makes him a danger in any race in which he’s entered, and he looms as the horse to beat in the Precisionist.
THE PLAY:
Pick 3: 5 / 4,7,9 / 4
