Weekend Warrior for Saturday, Jan. 20: Picks for Fire Plug Stakes, Sunshine Millions Turf, Pasco Stakes

NEW YORK – The Grade 3, $100,000 Las Cienegas on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course is the only graded event on Saturday’s stakes schedule. However, it is Sunshine Millions Day at Gulfstream, with four Florida-bred stakes worth a total of $600,000, and there are also multi-stakes cards at Tampa Bay Downs and Laurel.

Fire Plug Stakes

One of the two stakes at Laurel, this sprint attracted a group of admirable older warriors led by Do Share, Life in Shambles, and Favorite Tale. Do Share has won six of nine starts since the Linda Rice claim with two seconds and a third, and comes into this off a victory in the Gravesend at Aqueduct. Life in Shambles has been sharp since the Steve Asmussen claim and was a narrowly beaten second in the Gravesend. And Favorite Tale, who was one of the best sprinters in the country in 2015 when he finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, turned in what was arguably his best race since winning the Dave’s Friend over the Laurel main track earlier this month.

But as tough as this trio look, they are not unbeatable. Do Share was aided in the Gravesend by a pace collapse and by Life in Shambles appearing to pull himself up once he struck the front in midstretch. Life in Shambles isn’t totally camera shy, but he does seem to have trouble closing the deal when he competes against this tougher level of competition. And Favorite Tale drew the rail Saturday, a place I almost always prefer my horses to avoid at Laurel.

I’m going with Awesome Banner, whose recent spotty form can be explained by a long list of excuses. He finished up the track in the Fabulous Strike and Bold Ruler in his last two starts, but he acted up at the gate and was affected by a stricken opponent in the former, and was cooked in a speed duel in the latter. He was on a dead rail when last of four in the De Francis Dash four starts back, and raced against a speed bias when a distant second in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt five back.

Awesome Banner’s other efforts around those outings – a narrowly beaten second to the prolific Whitmore in the Phoenix, a willing second in the Smile Sprint to Imperial Hint, one of the best sprinters in the country in 2017, and a sharp third in the Maryland Sprint behind Whitmore and the Grade 1 stakes winner A. P. Indian – are all good enough to win this race. Awesome Banner should be involved from the start Saturday, and I like his outside draw.

Sunshine Millions Turf

Our Way and Enterprising finished a neck apart when first and second in this race last year, but Our Way has been relatively inactive since with only three subsequent starts, and I’m looking for Enterprising to turn the tables and get the money.

Enterprising did the dirty work in last year’s Sunshine Millions Turf, keeping the favored pacesetter honest only to see Our Way nail him late. But Enterprising went on to win the Fair Grounds and Muniz Memorial handicaps, and finish a close fourth in the Grade 1 Arlington Million to Beach Patrol, one of the best turf horses of 2017. He wasn’t suited to the 12-furlong distance in his two starts after the Arlington Million, one over the bottomless course in the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine, but he regained his winning ways off the cutback to this middle distance most recently, taking the prep for this spot at Gulfstream Park West.

Pasco Stakes

World of Trouble deserves a great deal of respect in this stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, not only because of his sharp first two career starts – a blowout score at first asking and a narrowly beaten second in the Florida Sire Affirmed Stakes – but also because he now goes for trainer Jason Servis, who wins with “only” 34 percent such new additions to his barn with a positive ROI. That said, I question the veracity of the field-best 88 Beyer Figure World of Trouble received most recently, considering the colt who edged him came back to win his next start with a Beyer 11 points lower.

I like He Hate Me, who impressively won the Tremont Stakes at Belmont last Belmont Stakes eve as though he were much more than a mere early 2-year-old. He is coming off a layoff, but is backed by the high percentage Horacio DePaz barn, which is good with layoff horses.