McGee: Keeneland pick four for Sunday, April 9
Yes, Sweet Loretta and Dancing Rags are Grade 1 winners already – and good for their connections, as they’re “made” fillies with a certain level of worth having already been attained. However, that’s neither here nor there in regard to how they’ll fare when returning from layoffs of more than five months today in the Grade 3 Beaumont Stakes (R8). And, working on the premise that their Beyer Speed Figures weren’t that great even during their successful runs as 2-year-olds, we’ll take a stand against them as the two heavy favorites (7-5 and 9-5 on the morning line) when laying out this pick-four play.
Race 6 – Wesley Ward is being very aggressive at the outset of this meet, and besides having already won the first 2-year-old race of the meet (of course), he won the Friday finale with Kirby’s Penny, who was on the kind of class drop resembling what he’s giving Swift One (9) in here; outer post and the needed recent start at Turfway should give this one an edge in a weak lineup.
Race 7 – There are just too many choices in this wicked-good turf allowance that essentially serves as a timely prep for the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, so we’ll spread liberally and leave out only a few while hoping to catch a price.
Race 8 – This is where we try to slip past the favored duo, hoping that either they’re just not primed for a top effort on a turnback or their relatively low Beyers from last year are predictive of them just not being superior to classmates who have now had time to catch up. Let’s use My Miss Chiff (2), Treble (4), Sine Wave (6), and Promises Broken (7).
Race 9 – One of the benefits of a multirace wager is you can usually go shorter (or longer) with the sequences you choose, i.e., if you’re not comfortable with Brooklyn Bobby (2) as a single, you can always cut it short with a pick three on races 6-8. In any case, it’s Graduation Day for this royally bred colt, whose inside post and two highly useful outings at Gulfstream should set him and Rosario up nicely for this; don’t think the 3-1 morning line being promised is realistic, but in any case, hopefully we’ll be live to this point.
This is the straight-A play:
R6 – 9
R7 – 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10
R8 – 2, 4, 6, 7
R9 – 2
50-cent ticket = $14
Here’s the DRF TicketMaker link.
