Weekend GamePlan for Nov. 14, 2026: Picks for Rapid Transit, Emerald, Awad, Just Asap, Funny Uncle, Titan Ready

The Weekend GamePlan focuses on stakes races. There is one of those, the Dream Supreme, on Saturday at Churchill Downs, but it drew just six entrants and lacks appeal. The Desi Arnaz at Del Mar has five runners and even less spark. Favored Brickyard Belle probably is too good for her Stewart Manor foes at Belmont, and so we are left to shoehorn starter-allowance races dressed up as stakes – the Claiming Crown – into this week’s endeavor.

Rapid Transit Starter

This goes as race 10 on the Churchill card, and I’m quite high on Just Asap, provided he’s priced somewhere in the range of his 15-1 morning line.

Just Asap does not fit the mold of a Claiming Crown horse. He’s only a 3-year-old, has run just 10 times, and has never participated in a true starter race.

Owner-trainer Steve Asmussen dropped a $16,000 claim on Just Asap when his previous connections decided to cut bait, dropping the horse into a conditioned claimer in July. There had been early hopes. At 2, Just Asap won his debut by seven lengths, finished second in the Sapling at Monmouth Park, and got a look in the Grade 1 Champagne two Octobers ago at Belmont. That went very poorly, and after three more losses by double-digit lengths, Just Asap showed up in the $16,000 claimer.

Asmussen moved him right into conditioned starter allowance races, non-winners of three, and in his first start for the new barn, Just Asap appeared to show little, even accounting for a troubled trip, at Ellis Park. Except if you watch the race closely, you might see a little spark when Just Asap finally was able to find a place to run. Second time out for the Asmussen barn, Just Asap started looking like a real horse, closing fast for third after a troubled beginning in a six-furlong Churchill race short of his best distance.

At Keeneland, stretched out to seven furlongs, the Rapid Transit distance, Just Asap stuck much closer to the pace, worked into the clear in upper stretch, and finished things off like a young horse truly getting the hang of things.

We can watch the horse work on Oct. 30. A modest half-mile in 50 seconds – that’s how it looks on the page. On video, Just Asap smoothly strides past the wire, having picked up his pace nicely in mid-stretch, like a horse who still has another level to find – and if he does, he can win Saturday at a price.

Emerald Starter

The visual of Unit Economics winning a seven-horse starter race at Belmont doesn’t, to me, quite match the 95 Beyer he earned, and I’m willing to take him on in the Emerald.

Doubt the Joe Sharp-trained Westside Tide goes as high as his 6-1 morning-line price, and perhaps I should just have stopped at him. This is a $75,000 claim who nearly won the Appleton Stakes for previous connections last winter, and he didn’t show his best last out at Kentucky Downs.

Instead, I’ll try the Sharp-trained Funny Uncle, who flashed some real turf ability finishing second to Westside Tide in a Colonial Downs turf handicap. Funny Uncle, unexposed on grass, moved very sharply while wide around the entire far turn, and at the furlong grounds looked like he’d go past perfect-trip Westside Tide. He did not, and the addition of blinkers for Saturday’s contest might explain why – lack of focus. Funny Uncle’s should be a high enough price to live with a tough outside post, and there are few jockeys more capable of working out a trip than Jose Ortiz.

Awad

Presumably, the filly More Champagne faces males in this race owing to the presence of Brickyard Belle in the sex-restricted Stewart Manor. The hope is More Champagne’s good third behind Brickyard Belle and the excellent Harper’s Corner last out attracts ample action, because I like Titan Ready to wire this group.

Privately purchased after nearly winning a Woodbine stakes as a maiden, Titan Ready had the misfortune at Saratoga of running into Wood Island. That is a very good horse. Wood Island came back in the Indian Summer at Keeneland and nearly won despite getting caught in a brutal speed duel. Titan Ready toyed with maidens when he belatedly cleared the maiden ranks Sept. 19, and since has put together a very active Kentucky work pattern. There’s only video of his most recent drill, over the Tapeta at Turfway Park – and from the look of it, they’re not beating him in the Awad.