Vallestina faces tough pace scenario in sprint

During her training career, Anna Meah has started only 136 horses, one at Gulfstream Park and 135 in California, so it’s more than slightly strange that Meah sends out the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the featured ninth race at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Okla.

Vallestina, a 6-year-old mare, last saw racing action March 1 at Santa Anita, where she won a $16,000 nonwinners-of-three claiming race. She has shipped to Will Rogers from Keeneland, where she’s posted three works since her most recent start and is drawn outside of her 10 rivals in a first-level, 5 1/2-furlong allowance race.

So, yes, these are strange times all around, racing and otherwise, and it makes some sense that a race-fit horse would hit the road seeking any sort of spot. Even so, at anything like the published odds, Vallestina is worth playing against in a field rife with possible winners.

Vallestina brings speed to a race overloaded with pace players; she’s one of seven entrants with a TimeformUS early pace figure of 93 or higher, with New Years Love (111) and Erebuni (107) the fastest of the fast on these figures. Will Rogers, the last two racing weeks, at least, has played like a fair track, with horses winning from front and back, inside and out, so it’s fair to forecast the host of front-runners leading to a pace meltdown.

Expensive Lesson, 20-1 on the line, has a chance if the race plays out on the track like it looks on paper. Expensive Lesson twice finished fourth in six-furlong sprints at Sam Houston this winter, and the 4-year-old has been kept out of claiming competition her last six starts. She got a three-furlong April 1 blowout at Will Rogers and can outrun her odds.

:: To stay up to date, follow us on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Among the pace players, New Years Love is preferred. She hasn’t started since August at Canterbury Park but returned from a December-to-April layoff last spring and won a Will Rogers maiden race.

The featured ninth is the third leg of a very tough late pick four that could easily yield a robust payoff to anyone sharp enough to hit it.

Race 7 is a maiden special weight over six furlongs that includes this handicapper’s best bet of the day, Euro Surprise. Euro Surprise appears to be an even-paced sprint type who has been hurt by inside draws in his first two starts – post 1 facing 10 rivals at Remington in December and post 2 at Will Rogers on March 25. He had trouble just after the start last time and appeared to tire through the final furlong and looks set for the best race of his career, which may be good enough to beat a field of modest talent.

Trainer Robertino Diodoro won with eight of his 16 runners during the last three-day Will Rogers race week and has two contenders in race 8, a $7,500 route claimer. Iza Daddy and Spirit of Caledon both are up in class from lower-level claiming starts, but each rates a solid chance here, with Iza Daddy mildly preferred. And in race 10, the nightcap, Diodoro sends out Seahawk Wave, the likely favorite who finished second at this Will Rogers conditioned-claiming class in his most recent start and who gets the services of jockey Ty Kennedy, who has been on fire riding Diodoro-trained Will Rogers starters.