Third race key to success in early pick five at Golden Gate
The featured third race on Sunday at Golden Gate comes smack in the middle of the early 50-cent pick five and can help players manage the complexity that surrounds it in the sequence.
This is a one-mile Tapeta race restricted to 3-year-old fillies and open to second-level allowance horses or $50,000 claimers. It drew six entrants, four of whom at first blush look like plausible contenders. Drawn from the inside out, that quartet consists of Reiwa, Midnight Sunrise, Dynasty of Her Own, and She’s So Special. But dig deeper into the form and the featured third appears to come down to Dynasty of Her Own and She’s So Special.
For one thing, Reiwa and Midnight Sunrise both are one-time winners in a race open to horses with two wins, while Dynasty of Her Own and She’s So Special have notched two victories. Dynasty of Her Own, trained, like Reiwa, by Jonathan Wong, debuted in a short sprint at Golden Gate as a 2-year-old, showed good speed, won comfortably, and galloped out like she could handle more distance than the 5 1/2 furlongs she raced that day. That proved true, as Dynasty of Her Own showed up at Sunland Park for her second career start and 3-year-old debut and won a $65,000 stakes race over 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt. Dynasty of Her Own cornered very wide into the stretch in that race but still drew powerfully away and once again galloped out with good energy.
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Dynasty of Her Own got her two-turn chance in another Sunland Park stakes, the $75,000 Island Fashion on Feb. 23, and one still can’t say with certainty whether she can route or not. Dynasty of Her Own got into a wicked speed duel running into a strong backstretch headwind and actually battled on gamely to finish third. She probably can stay Sunday’s one-mile trip, provided she’ll settle better this time than last.
Still, the solid selection is She’s So Special. This filly, in from Southern California for trainer Peter Miller, also has route questions to answer, but her two-turn dirt mile last December at Los Alamitos, a race that produced four next-out winners, suggested she can stay. She’s So Special failed to relax when stuck behind horses along the inside in that start, but still battled on gamely through the final quarter-mile. Her Golden Gate sprint win last out, which included a powerhouse gallop-out, hinted at a filly more comfortable skipping over a synthetic surface than grinding on dirt, and her outside draw can help keep her in the clear Sunday.
A pick five play might get away with just two horses in race 1, an $8,000 claimer, where St James Place and Glenroy look best. In race 2, Aerial Decoy and Herdsman are main plays in the pick five, Poppy’s C Note a backup. Race 4, another $8,000 maiden-claimer, could be ripe for chaos and merits spreading as wide as possible, while race 5, an open $16,000 claimer over 5 1/2 furlongs, is ridiculously top-heavy with early speed. Sigur Ros is the fastest of the fast and is a main play to finish the sequence, but backups are needed to wager with any confidence.
The card’s other allowance, race 8, is an entry-level mile also open to $25,000 claimers. Liberal and Wesphire should have a chance to rally into a quick, contested pace set by Many Roses and I Declare War.