Weekend GamePlan: Picks for Fort Lauderdale, Poinsettia, Letellier

Remember the old days, when December meant Calder Race Course in Florida and awaiting the start of the big Gulfstream meeting and Oaklawn in the new year? The landscape looks entirely different today. And yet this is still the last Saturday before Christmas – a chance to pad that holiday bankroll.

Fort Lauderdale

I have quibbles with the Fort Lauderdale morning line, and here’s hoping my assessment proves more accurate.

One might posit Major Dude, not Grand Sonata, as the shorter price between two Todd Pletcher-trained entrants. No surprise, in fact, if Major Dude winds up favored, contending figs and red-hot Irad Ortiz Jr. sucking in a plurality of win money.

And what about the Saffie factor? Saffie Joseph Jr. seems to have 100 stakes entrants on this card, and I wonder if Cash Equity, his leading Fort Lauderdale hope, might not draw a little more play than a 9-2 shot.

Can I interest you in a peak performance from Fort Washington? An Emmanuel revival?

All this while attempting to wring value out of Win for the Money, a horse I like in a vacuum, though not so much as the 5-2 morning-line favorite. Let’s keep in mind that while Win for the Money exits the Breeders’ Cup Mile, he went off at 37-1 there after posting a 13-1 upset in the Woodbine Mile. His two recent stints as a favorite came in far lesser spots, a listed race at Ellis Park and an even softer contest at Gulfstream.

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To be sure, Win for the Money didn’t run a step at Del Mar. I didn’t remember his trip and went to the replay looking for some sort of trouble. None occurred. Win for the Money simply ran flat from start to finish – so flat, my inclination is to throw the race out.

Granted, his Woodbine Mile came with an ideal trip, but it did show what Win for the Money can do at his best, and while the Fort Lauderdale adds another furlong to the equation, Win for the Money showed some level of competence over 10 and 12 furlongs.

He’s a 5-year-old but a lightly raced one, and while his campaign started in May, his races this year have been well spaced, and Win for the Money has logged three workouts since returning to Florida from Del Mar. This is in fact a Florida horse, a very useful type with positional pace and easily a high enough level to best these foes – hopefully at something more appealing than 5-2.

Poinsettia

You know what you don’t see much from Steve Asmussen-trained horses? Bullet workouts.

Asmussen workers, even the fast ones, are more apt to breeze slow than fast, which is what makes the workout pattern for long-layoff comebacker High Class noteworthy.

We can feel pretty sure that High Class did some relatively serious training before returning to the work tab on Oct. 18 for the first time since June. She ramped up quickly, two slower half-miles leading to a fast half, a five-eighths in 1:01 preceding a quick bullet going the same distance from the gate, the pattern ending with a snappy half-mile Dec. 8 at Fair Grounds.

None of these drills, unfortunately, made it to public video, but it’s a fair assumption that this filly has been trained to run to her better form while making her first start since May. Asmussen has a strong five-year record with dirt sprinters returning from layoffs between a half-year and a year in stakes competition. And was it mentioned that High Class won this very race a year ago?

She’s on a speed mission, one assumes, from an inside draw. Let’s see what those unusually fast works have her ready to accomplish.

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Letellier

It’s usually worth paying attention when a competent trainer debuts a young horse in a stakes race, and I consider Whit Beckman to have proven himself a competent trainer. What’s more, Beckman told me earlier this week that he was likely to scratch Her Laugh from the Letellier and run her instead in the Untapable Stakes. That would leave the first-time starter, Simply Joking, as his lone Letellier participant.

There’s no public video of Simply Joking’s works, but they’re fast and steady, and the Letellier came up short and soft. And while I find firsters in stakes intriguing, many bettors find them off-putting. Even if Simply Joking comes up live on the board, she still could offer fair odds.

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