Litfin: Challenging pick six with $35,498 carryover

Wednesday, May 14, preview

$1.8 MILLION BABY

Pacific, a $1.8 million purchase as a 2-year-old in training who was scratched when last Saturday’s 10th race came off the grass, is scheduled to debut in Wednesday’s opener at a mile on the Widener turf course.

The temporary rails will be at 18 feet on the Widener and at 27 feet on the inner course.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Pacific is by the versatile sire Smart Strike, and the gray colt is the first runner out of Grade 2 winner Mini Sermon. His chief competition figures to come from Lunar Tales, who was purchased and turned over to Gary Contessa following a sharp debut sprinting at Gulfstream Park, and Social Affair, a Phipps Stable homebred trained by Shug McGaughey whose half-brother Dancing Forever won the 2008 Manhattan Handicap for the same connections.

$35,498 PICK SIX CARRYOVER

After a Sunday sequence bookended with upset wins by Mah Jong Maddnes ($20.20) and Spinning for Home ($17.20), a pick six carryover of $35,498 awaits bettors as racing resumes following the two-day break.

The super-exotic is scheduled to begin at 2:53 p.m. Eastern with race 4, a $20,000 claiming sprint for non-winners of three races lifetime. Pending any late scratches, the matchup is loaded with early speed, which could set the table for late runners such as Can’t Catch Me Now and Demon’s Deputy.

There are no “free bingo squares” in this pick six, as the three shortest-priced favorites on the morning line – Platinum Bombshell (5th), Nickerdoodle (6th), and Saturday’s Charm (8th) – are all tabbed at 5-2.

SIX IN DIABLO STAKES

Saturday’s Charm is the only entrant in the featured $100,000 Diablo Stakes not to have earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90 or better last out, but he may be a lukewarm choice to pick up his first win since February 2013 as he drops out of the Grade 1 Carter Handicap.

Saturday’s Charm, a stretch runner who had zero chance in the Carter once Dads Caps stole away to an easy lead, projects to get a more favorable race shape in his third start of the year for Steve Asmussen, thanks to the presence of Royal Currier, Carried Interest, and Green Gratto, who all have early speed and break from the three inside stalls.

Sensational Slam, who lit up the board to the tune of $81 at Belmont last fall, shortens up after a pair of peak efforts at Aqueduct.

Tenango has the race-over-the-track angle going after giving futile chase to the odds-on Integrity in an off-the-turf sprint on opening day.