King: 3 spot plays for Friday at Churchill
Friday, May 16, preview
Turf racing resumes
After rain Wednesday evening forced management to move Thursday’s scheduled turf races to the main track, grass racing returns Friday on a good course. Three grass races are on the 10-race card, starting with $50,000 claimers in race 3, followed by a second-level allowance turf sprint in race 8, and ending with a maiden $40,000 claimer in the nightcap.
Streethomealabama is the choice in the third. She makes her first start for a tag and ran well enough when third in a turf race at Saratoga last summer.
Channel Marker is the class of the eighth race, coming out of three consecutive sprint stakes. He also is a consistent turf sprinter, having run in the exacta in five of six such races.
Then in the nightcap, where there is a Super Hi 5 carryover of $7,784, First Beach is appealing in his third start of his current form cycle and having respectable Polytrack and turf form.
Short fields begin card
The first two races, a pair of maiden races, drew just five-horse fields. The fact that the opener, a baby race, drew such a short field isn’t surprising considering that so few babies are ready to run, but why so few horsemen entered horses in the second race is tough to figure out.
A straight maiden race for fillies and mares going seven furlongs for a $50,000 purse, it was the type of race that in years past drew 10 or more.
Spot plays
Race 4
ACT OF HEROISM (#6, 10-1), by Empire Maker out of a multiple stakes-placed Gulch mare, should move forward second out after failing to threaten in a race on Polytrack following a slow start. I suspect that he has the most upside of this group, and some of his rivals have been stuck in the maiden ranks for quite a while.
Race 6
WINGATE HALL (#1, 2-1) sprang to life last out with a career-best 71 Beyer Speed Figure when second at this $15,000 non-winners-of-two class level April 29. His trainer, Ian Wilkes, points for Churchill Downs and likely will have this one ready to run just as well in his second race of the meet; a good single for multirace gimmicks.
Race 7
ALERT AND PERKY (#5, 3-1) is returning to dirt after failing to make an impact against straight maidens on turf. All of his earlier races resulted in Beyers in the 60s, and he was on the board in two of three maiden claimers on dirt. I wish he had more early speed, but that is offset by his weak competition.