King: How I'd play Belmont for Friday, June 5
My late pick four play at Belmont for Friday focuses on horses from the barn of trainer Chad Brown, who holds the key players in the first leg of the wager, the seventh, as well as the ninth, the New York Handicap, a race in which his top mare, STEPHANIE’S KITTEN, is a single.
Let’s take a look at the wager, beginning with the first leg of the sequence:
Race 7: LOOKAROUNDCORNERS (1), disqualified from first and placed 10th for interference in his lone start April 18 at Keeneland, is the most likely winner – though not the only horse to use in the first leg of the sequence, a mile race on grass. Also holding appealing is SEEKING ALPHA (11), who was just 1 1/4 lengths behind the top choice in the same race with a wide trip.
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Both horses are trained by Brown, one of the most successful turf trainers in North America.
Race 8: Contention runs deep in the eight-horse True North, a stakes sprint at six furlongs. In order of preference, the choices are DADS CAPS (5), ROCK FALL (8), CLEARLY NOW (7), and STALLWALKIN’ DUDE (2). But there is little separating this group of horses.
On their best days any of these horses could win, as might another horse or two, but to cover more than half the eight-horse field in the race is going too deep.
Race 9: STEPHANIE’S KITTEN (1A) appears in another league than the older female turf mares in the country. And given her success at Belmont and skill at 1 1/4 miles, she rates as a clear single. She, like the duo in race 7, is trained by Brown, and is coupled with an apparent pacemaker, KITTEN’S QUEEN (1).
Race 10: Given the unique distance of the Belmont Turf Cup, two miles on grass, it seems best to use multiple horses. UNITARIAN (3) rates on top, actually having won a two-mile race before, but his victory at the distance came against a lesser field at Gulfstream this past winter. Also throw in DYNAMIC SKY (1), INNOVATION ECOMONY (2), and RED RIFLE (5).
The Tickets
Using the horses above, a 50-cent pick four of 1,11 with 2,5,7,8, with 1 with 1,2,3,5 costs $16.