White Abarrio headlines the last Saturday of racing during 2024, and if you think the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector is too short for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, you didn’t watch his seven-furlong comeback race last month.
Another Breeders’ Cup-class horse, Motorious, heads the Santa Anita turf-sprint feature.
Both those favorites look like winners at a short price, White Abarrio especially. We’ll try to make something more from a trio of hundred-granders coast to coast.
Blue Norther
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.
OVETA’S HOBBY
Trainer: John Sadler
Last race: Dec. 8, 7th
Finish: 1st by 12
Beyer: 77
Class-drop juvenile filly trounced $50,000 maiden-claiming sprint. Broke well, sped to lead, widened late, would be a top contender in nonwinners-of-two starter allowance.
The highest-level North American race Saturday comes in California, the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity. Looking for value in that short field, basically a Bob Baffert intramural, feels like trying to squeeze blood from a stone.
The richest open North American races come at Turfway Park, which never has short fields and has assembled four wildly competitive Saturday stakes. The 2-year-old turf races at Gulfstream also hold betting appeal, as do a pair of $500,000 New York stallion stakes at Aqueduct.
Tropical Park Oaks
