Brad Free's cross-country plays for Sunday, April 26, 2020
Craziness early and uniformity late is the Sunday blueprint at Gulfstream Park and Oaklawn Park. It begins with a Jaime-come-lately. Diving in:
Gulfstream Park, Race 1 (12:55 p.m. ET) – Form reversals usually apply to horses. Sometimes it applies to trainers, which is happening now in Florida. From 2014 through 2019, Jaime Mejia was a 4 percent trainer (68 wins, 1,571 starts). This year, Meija is 5 for 20 with three wins from his last five starters, including another winner Saturday. Quite an unexpected run.
Goldenlineof (4) is not fast enough based on speed figures, but neither were the trainer’s recent upset winners. Goldenlineof ran well over this turf course two back at this level, and at 20-1 for suddenly red-hot Mejia, Goldenlineof is worth a flyer on any surface.
Gulfstream Park, Race 2 (1:24 p.m. ET) – Mejia again. Chinomadito (2) is a 16-start maiden making his first start since changing trainers. The maiden hit the board twice recently and is playable for the simple reason Mejia trainees are running lights out. Chinomadito is listed at 10-1.
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Gulfstream Park, Race 5 (2:53 p.m. ET) – This bettor is willing to take 6-1 on a maiden-50 runner-up facing a nondescript field of Florida-bred special-weight maidens. That price is the early line on Tara (5) in this statebred maiden race; 6-1 is a square price.
Gulfstream Park, Race 8 (4:25 p.m. ET) – The “cross-country cinch” for Sunday is Sneer (6), runner-up last out in an apparently strong special weight at a mile. She shortens to seven furlongs, and if she runs two alike the Into Mischief filly would make 9-5 early odds seem like a gift.
Oaklawn Park, Race 8 (5:38 p.m. ET) – This maiden sprint looks like slam-dunk exacta. The speedball Lil Miss Moppet (3) should be long gone over program favorite Tipsy Gal (11). That is a 5-2 shot over a 2-1 shot. To be honest, not very creative.

