Gierkink: How I'll play the Queen's Plate card
The fabulous 13-race Queen’s Plate card, with five stakes, offers a myriad of betting opportunities. The early pick four starts on race 4 and has a guaranteed pool of $200,000. The late pick four, with a $300,000 guarantee, encompasses the final four races and begins in race 10 with the $1 million Plate.
The pick five that starts on race 2 has a guaranteed pool of $50,000. Another pick five has been added beginning on race 6 with a guaranteed pool of $100,000. The pick four and pick five are both 20-cent bets, enabling those with even a small bankroll to cover lots of horses.
The late pick five on Sunday is a high-quality sequence that starts with the Charlie Barley Stakes. I’ll go three-deep in the one-mile turf event with the favored CONQUEST ENFORCER (1), HAMMERS VISION (2), and the first-time gelding HOLLYWOOD HIDEAWAY (11).
Race 7, a nine-furlong allowance, can be pared down to MACHO BREW (4) and NIPIGON (1A), who’s coupled with outsider NIIGON’S TURN.
The class of race 8, the Grade 3 Singspiel, is 2015 Breeders’ Stakes winner DANISH DYNAFORMER (2), who was the beaten favorite in last year’s Queen’s Plate. He was recently sixth in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill, from which the unplaced Midnight Storm exited to take the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile. He’s a single, and the 6-1 morning-line quote on him is way too high.
STRUT THE COURSE (5) is preferred in the ninth, the Grade 2 Dance Smartly, a race she won last year over a salty field. Others worth using are BALL DANCING (1), LEXIE LOU (3), and HEATH (6).
I’ll go six-deep in the Queen’s Plate, using LEAVEM IN MALIBU (4), SHAKHIMAT (6), ROCKET PLAN (8), AMIS GIZMO (10), ESPOSITO (11), and GAMBLE’S GHOST (13).
Pick 5 (Races 6-10): 1,2,11 / 1,4 / 2 / 1,3,5,6 / 4,6,8,10,11,13
Unlike the pick four and pick five, Woodbine’s rolling doubles have a low 15 percent takeout.
Off a flat fourth in her first turf start, ADIOS AL (2) seems made to order for the opener, a right-handed turf sprint for maidens. Key her and take NASHVILLE KNIGHT (3) and KITTEN CANDY (7) in the second.
Double (Races 1-2): 2 / 3,7