Hogan: How I'd play Del Mar for Thursday, Aug. 20.

This is an eight-race card where seven of the races are either maiden or claiming (or maiden claiming) races. My two strongest opinions fall in races 2 and 4, so let’s try to take down the pick five.

Race 2: #1 POWER OF HOPE should win this race. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he was made the 2-1 morning-line favorite, so we’ll have to create value in the other races. He had a solid debut on July 26 at Del Mar, where he rallied late to split a field of 10 at odds of 5-1. Considering that his trainer, Ron Ellis is just 2 for 70 with first-time starters in the past five years, that debut was encouraging. Ellis is 10 for 40 with a $2.39 ROI over the past five years in maiden special weights with horses making their second start, so Power of Hope should certainly improve while stretching out to a mile. He’s caught a field he should beat, with three of his opponents trying dirt for the first time and likely second choice #3 DREAM POLICE returning from a seven-month hiatus.

Race 4: #6 TEQUILA MARY (6-1 ML) looked good in her debut on May 30 at Golden Gate Fields, good enough that she went favored at this $30,000 maiden-claiming level in her second start, when she finished a distant fifth in a field of 10. If you can forgive that effort, you’ll get her at a much better price, and there no reason to think she won’t improve here in the first start off the claim for Steve Sherman. I’ll use her along with morning-line favorite #3 SOME CAAN JOB, who looms large on the drop to the maiden-claiming ranks.

:: See Mike Hogan’s pick five play in DRF TicketMaker and bet it with DRF Bets

The pick five play ($82 total):
Race 1
A: 1,4
B: 3,7
Race 2
A: 1
C: 2,3
Race 3
A: 1,5
B: 2,7
Race 4
A: 3,6
B: 7
Race 5
A: 6,7
B: 1 C: 3,5