King: How I'll play Keeneland for Sunday, Oct. 23

With a strategy to go four deep in the featured Dowager Stakes , hoping to connect with a price, here is my late pick three play for Sunday at Keeneland.

Race 7

The first leg is a money-allowance sprint, a race Schivarelli (2) looks poised to win. He just ran a close third in the one-mile Ack Ack at Churchill Downs on Oct. 1 after taking the lead in midstretch, and now cuts back to 6 1/2 furlongs, a distance that suits him better. He is proven at Keeneland and the class of the race, and is the lone “A” play using DRF’s ABC Ticketmaker program.

Scarly Charly (6) is the backup “B” horse, having run some very fast times at Saratoga this summer. If he can bounce back from a subpar effort in his first start of the meet Oct. 7, he may be able to run with the top choice.

Race 8

The 1 1/2-mile Dowager is a tricky race to handicap with surprisingly so few of these being experienced at the race’s distance.

I will use four horses – Apple Betty (5) and Elektrum (2) as “A” runners and Robillard (6) and Lots O’ Lex (8) as secondary “B” runners. Apple Better is experienced in long races overseas; Elektrum is the class, and Robillard and Lots O’ Lex have run quickly in shorter routes.

Race 9

Last up is a maiden claiming race in which my three plays are all shifting from turf to dirt.

Warrior One, Canny, and Dahlia’s Foxy Lady are the choices in preferential order, though with little separating them , and they all go down as “A” runners in Ticketmaker. Warrior One (5) performed well at first asking with a third at Arlington and starts for a winning second-out barn; Canny (7) just ran second, edging Warrior One for the place at Arlington, though she might have less room to improve as the more seasoned runner; and Dahlia's Foxy Lady (9) is a straight maiden dropper who was well beaten first out but in a rather salty race at Kentucky Downs.

The Play

Plugging the horses into Ticketmaker, for $24 an all-A ticket can be played for $1.50; a ticket of two A’s and one B for $1; and a ticket of two B’s and one A for 50 cents.

:: See Byron King’s pick three play in DRF TicketMaker and bet it with DRF Bets