Peck: True North-Met Mile double play

Here's a look at the daily double wager offered Friday and Saturday at Belmont, comprising the True North and the Met Mile.

The way I wanted to approach the True North was to try to beat the likely heavy favorite, PRIVATE ZONE. With him out of the race, ALWAYS SUNSHINE (5) and CATALINA RED (6) are my main plays. Always Sunshine has won four of his last five races and, like the Catalina Red, comes off a career-best Beyer Speed Figure. Both are stalkers who should be ideally spotted off the speeds, which are expected to be DAD'S CAPS (4) and HOLY BOSS (1), and would benefit greatly if a duel does develop up front. JOKING (2) is another who would be a beneficiary of that scenario, though he'd need to run the race of his life. Holy Boss does benefit from the scratch, and I'll use him defensively.

In the Met Mile, NOBLE BIRD (4) intrigues at a decent price. He ran a huge race in the Pimlico Special, albeit against a weak field, and he had an excuse in the Alysheba as a slow start cost him all chance. I'll also use FROSTED (5), who figures to be rolling late. But CALCULATOR (11) is my key as it appears that this one-turn mile configuration is exactly what he wants.

THE PLAY:

$2 DOUBLE: 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4, 5 11 = $24

$2 DOUBLE: 1, 5, 6 / 11 = $6

$3 DOUBLE: 5, 6 / 4, 5, 11 = $12

$4 DOUBLE: 5, 6 / 11 = $4

TOTAL: $46