King: Formal Summation way to go in Pasco

If I were to visually grade the most recent starts of Hand of Power and Formal Summation – two contenders in Saturday’s Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs – Hand of Power would receive an ‘A’ and Formal Summation a ‘B.’

Hand of Power, making his first start on dirt in a one-mile maiden special weight at Churchill Downs on Nov. 14, grabbed a contending position just off the leaders without urging and blew away the opposition with a sweeping rally.

Formal Summation, who normally races on or near the pace, showed promise in his last race, overcoming a poor start and early traffic to rally from ninth and grab second in the Inaugural Stakes at Tampa on Dec. 19. But his neck defeat was more the result of the leader, Ishaq, losing focus in the lane after his blinkers came loose and began flapping than of Formal Summation’s rally.

Despite Hand of Power being the more visually striking of the two last out, it is Formal Summation who seems the better wager in the Pasco. His most recent race came against a far better group than the suspect maidens handled by Hand of Power, and Formal Summation’s overall body of work is superior. This is a horse who won the off-the-turf Laurel Futurity in September and ran a close fourth in the Buffalo Man Stakes at Gulfstream, beaten a pair of noses for the place.

Formal Summation offers more value in the Pasco than Hand of Power. Formal Summation’s last race was not as flashy, he has Ronnie Allen Jr. up, and he is 5-1 on the morning line. Bettors are far more likely to jump aboard Hand of Power (7-2), who is ridden by the higher-profile Julien Leparoux, coming in from Gulfstream to ride at Tampa on Saturday.

With a better start, Formal Summation can move forward off his last race and turn in a top performance at overlaid odds.

American Beauty Stakes

The American Beauty at Oaklawn on Saturday drew just seven entrants, but I’m optimistic that Haveyougoneaway will be an appealing price. She comes off a fifth in the Zia Distaff on Nov. 25, and three of her rivals – Meshell, Sarah Sis, and Super Saks – are coming off stakes victories. Haveyougoneaway might get a bit lost in the wagering shuffle. She is 5-1 on the morning line.

If you forgive the last race from Haveyougoneaway, she has the necessary credentials. She is 6 for 16 and has finished second or third seven times on dirt, the surface of the American Beauty.

Considering that she was shipping to run at Zia Park and racing in a surprisingly good field, her fifth-place finish there seems forgivable. The winner, Thirteen Arrows, repeated in the Pan Zareta Stakes at Fair Grounds.

Throw in that she has run well at Oaklawn Park and that rivals Meshell and Sarah Sis are coming out of restricted 3-year-old stakes company last year, and there are some clear things to like about Haveyougoneaway.

Santa Monica Stakes

Without an elite female sprinter in the Santa Monica at Santa Anita on Saturday, several in that race are taking shots by stepping up from lesser races or shifting surfaces.

That left me pondering whether to take Ben’s Duchess, who ran fourth in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 26 after winning the Grade 3 L.A. Woman, or Room for Me, a New York shipper who won a pair of stakes last year.

In the end, I settled on Room for Me. She could be underestimated by the public because she is shipping to a different circuit and is coming out of two ungraded stakes this winter at Aqueduct. She won the first of those, the Garland of Roses, and then was third in the Interborough on Jan. 9 when matched against La Verdad, the champion female sprinter of 2015.

Her owner and trainer, David Jacobson, is winless with eight starters at Santa Anita this winter through Thursday, which might give some bettors pause. But that’s a small sample, and four of those runners went off at odds of 10-1 or more.

Room for Me isn’t an unknown on the Santa Anita dirt, like some of those past Jacobson starters were. She is 3 for 4 at Santa Anita from earlier in her career.