Gierkink's preview: Eighth race looks intriguing

Jockey race tightens

Luis Contreras won half of Wednesday’s eight races to draw within three wins of leading rider Patrick Husbands, who scored once on the card. Husbands’s 146 wins at the meet came on 574 mounts, compared with a whopping 790 rides for Contreras.

Eurico Da Silva is a clear third in the standings, with 122 victories. Rounding out the top 10 are Justin Stein (89), Jesse Campbell (84), Emma-Jayne Wilson (70), David Moran (55), Gary Boulanger (50), Gerry Olguin (48), and Sheena Ryan (38).

Moran is the lone top-10 rider with a positive return on investment ($2.09).

Intriguing eighth race

Miyoshi’s Sahara, Bug’s Girl, and Miracleonthirtieth all scratched out of a good $12,500 claimer for nonwinners of two on Wednesday, in favor of this Ontario-sired allowance for nonwinners of two. These allowance races are usually tougher than lower conditioned claimers, but this one came up weak.

Miyoshi’s Sahara (5-2) prevailed in a three-way front end battle before weakening to finish third in another five-furlong allowance Sept. 27. Her previous form was spotty, but she might not have to bring her “A” game to get the job done here with Omar Moreno retaining the mount.

Bug’s Girl (15-1) needs everything to break her way to be effective, which wasn’t the case in her last few outings. With an alert break under new rider Tommy Wong, she has a chance to wire the field, although she did rally for second after missing the break in her best race of the year July 30.

Miracleonthirtieth (20-1) is donning blinkers off a series of lackluster performances on turf and Polytrack. There’s not much to hang your hat on with this one.

Ring With Bling is the 2-1 morning-line favorite. She’s returning from a two-month absence, during which she worked two half-miles for trainer Paul Buttigieg.

DRF FORMULATOR FACT: Buttigieg has a 25 percent strike-rate with 31-60 day comebackers over the past five years, with a profitable return on investment of $2.36.

Tactical Moment chalky key

Tactical Moment (3-1) is worth exploring as a single in both the last leg of the pick four and the first leg of the pick three in the seventh, a $20,000 sprint for nonwinners of two. The 4-year-old is halving in value following a layoff when began when he checked in third for $40,000 on Sept. 10. He has worked sporadically of late for trainer Mark Casse.

DRF FORMULATOR FACT: Casse has won at a 22 percent clip with 31-60 day comebackers dropping at least 50 percent in price during the last five years, with an ROI of $2.91.

Cozy Lead will be scratched from the seventh in favor of Saturday’s seventh race, a much easier $12,500 contest.