Byron King: My Option brings solid Polytrack form to Raven Run

There are plenty of top-quality fillies in Saturday’s 14-horse Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland: Silsita, the winner of the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks and the 7-2 favorite; Grade 1 Prioress winner Lighthouse Bay, the co-second choice at 4-1; and Ciao Bella Luna, another 4-1 shot who won the Grade 2 Beaumont in the spring at Keeneland.

But the best wager in the Raven Run, a seven-furlong, Grade 2 race for 3-year-old fillies, appears to be My Option, even if she dips from her generous 8-1 morning line. Odds of 5-1 on My Option would represent a fair price.

Here’s why: She’s raced on Polytrack, having recorded a fine record of one win and two seconds from three starts over it at Arlington. And that win was a big one, coming in the Grade 3 Arlington Oaks.

Beyond her record, her speed figures suggest she excels on Polytrack. Her two highest Beyer Speed Figures, a 92 and a 97, came in two races this summer on the Arlington main track, with the 97 coming in the Arlington Oaks.

That top Beyer gives her an edge over the competition, particularly when compared with the synthetic figures of the other entrants. Of her 13 rivals, only Silsita has run in the 90s, doing so when she posted a 92 Beyer in winning Turfway’s Bourbonette by a nose.

Throw in a couple of bullet works from My Option at Hawthorne for trainer Chris Block, and a couple of odds-building but deceptively good third-place finishes in stakes at Arlington on turf in which she chased I’m Already Sexy, and her attractiveness grows.

As for the cutback in distance to seven furlongs, it should pose little problem. My Option is a filly who scored her largest margin of victory, five lengths, in winning a sprint for Illinois-breds at Hawthorne to kick off the year, and that was going six furlongs.

Look for her to get a great trip racing in midpack and to run down the speed in the stretch under Block’s go-to jockey, Eddie Perez.

Finding value in statebred stakes

Beyond Keeneland, a number of tracks are running statebred stakes races Saturday, including Belmont and Laurel, where I like a horse at each track.

At Belmont, I’m somewhat intrigued by Inimitable Romanee in the Ticonderoga for fillies and mares racing 1 1/16 miles on grass. I’d prefer she won more regularly – she is just 2 for 18 lifetime and 1 for 15 since arriving in the United States – but her foes also have faults of one kind or another.

She is at least consistent when racing in spots like this, and my hope is that off a third as the favorite in the John Hettinger, some bettors will be less enthusiastic about supporting her. She needs to stick to at least her 4-1 morning line to warrant a wager.

As for the race at Laurel, it also is a statebred race for fillies and mares going a route on grass – the Maryland Million Ladies. In contrast to the race at Belmont, this race doesn’t have many horses experienced going a distance of ground.

My choice, Monster Sleeping, is one of those types. Only four of her 27 races have come at a mile or longer, with all of those races taking place this year for her current trainer, Dale Capuano, who claimed her for $30,000 in March.

She does have a 50 percent win mark in those four routes, and her form since the summer has been sparkling. In addition to winning a pair of allowances at Presque Isle, she ran third in the six-furlong Jameela Stakes on the Laurel turf.

The winner, Saratoga stakes winner Madame Giry, validated the form of the Jameela by running second in the Buffalo Trace Franklin County Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 11.

Presumably due to Monster Sleeping’s limited route experience and this race being 1 1/8 miles on the Laurel turf, she is a 6-1 shot on the morning line for the Maryland Million Ladies. Expect that price to drop, but even at 4-1 or higher, she is playable.