King: Los Alamitos pick three play for Saturday, Dec. 21

Los Alamitos Race Course ends its card with a pick three Saturday, though in my mind it might as well be considered a pick two. There appears to be a “free square” in the middle leg, the eighth race, the Los Alamitos Futurity – a race in which DORTMUND (3) appears lengths the best.

Hyped long before his career debut, he made a believer out of this handicapper even before seeing him run in person at Churchill Downs last month. Catching him a few days earlier when schooling in the paddock, he was an obvious standout – in terms of size, muscle, and appearance.

That day at Churchill, he stood out like NBA star Lebron James lined up against a group of high school kids in a game of pick-up basketball. And he stands out in the Los Alamito Futurity in the same way.

As for the other legs of the wagers:

Race 7: Leg one

SWEET MARINI (5) is an ‘A’ play, or a high-percentage play, using the format used with Daily Racing Form’s Ticketmaker software. She is the leading money earner in the field with a bankroll of more than $332,000; she is a stakes winner; and she just won over the Los Al strip for trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Martin Garcia.

I will use two others as back-up ‘B’ plays: POPALICIOUS (1), who returns at the same class level after a victory at Los Al, albeit three months ago; and MAGIC LILY (4), the top last-race Beyer Speed Figure horse who scored recently on the Polytrack at Del Mar but who is a horse with established dirt form, too.

Race 8: Leg two

As discussed in the introduction to this column, DORTMUND (3), perfect in two starts for Baffert, is a single, an ‘A’play with no backups.

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Race 9: Leg three

Don’t love anyone in the nightcap, a maiden $20,000 race. Let’s try two ‘A’ plays: PLAY MAKER (10), who is returned to his best surface on dirt after a failure on Polytrack; second-time starter and speed-and-fade runner NEVADA TIME (4).

Also worthy of use, though to a lesser extent, is BADASMYWIFELETSMEBE (7), a fit on form and class but a horse who could regress moving from Polytrack to dirt. He seems to prefer racing on turf and synthetic surfaces, which is typical of progeny of his sire, Unusual Heat.

The tickets

Plugging the horses outlined above into Ticketmaker with a base wager of $1 and a budget of $24, results in an all-‘A’ play for $4; a play of ‘As’ and one ‘B’ in $3 denominations; and a bet of two ‘As’ and two ‘Bs’ in $2 combinations. Collective ticket cost is $24.