Go Like the Wind
Trainer: Paulo Lobo
Last race: Jan. 4, race 9
Finish: Fourth by nine and one-half lengths
Beyer: 44
Making his career debut in a Cal-bred maiden turf sprint, this 3-year-old ran well. Broke slowly and trailed, steadied at spill, finished okay in race dominated by front-runners. Showed promise.
With some rain having fallen yesterday and a chance (albeit slight) of rain this afternoon, Sunday's Santa Anita card is a bit difficult to decipher. Add in the possibility that biases may or may not exist following track work and putting together plays before getting a feel for the track is rather difficult. Because of this, I’m looking at only a small play, and it comes in the featured event, the five-horse Santa Ynez for newly turned 3-year-old fillies.
Aqueduct | Race 5 | Post Time 3:00 p.m. (ET) | Go to the TimeformUS PPs
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Late pick-four action at Santa Anita. The ticket represents an endorsement of heavy favorite Coliseum in the Sham Stakes, Race 9. Listen, I’m typically one to try and take down favorites, and it’s generally a bad idea taking short prices on horses stepping up in class and stretching out, but Coliseum (#5) has a route-leaning pedigree and hardly could have been more impressive in his debut. His trainer, as well, appears to know how to handle talented young horses.
Race 5: Tazmonian Devil (#8)
Earned the co-highest TimeformUS Speed Figure in this field in his debut.
Is getting significant class relief after facing stakes-quality horses in his first two starts.
Deserves another chance at a mile, as he is bred to excel at route distances.
12-1 on ML
I’ll spectate the early portion of the Gulfstream card but plan to get involved beginning in race 7 with the late pick five. If neither of the two horses I use in the first leg of that bet wins, I’ll come back with a late pick four using the same pick-five horses in races 8-11.
Aqueduct | Race 8 | Post Time 3:59 p.m. (ET) | [link: Go to the TimeformUS PPs | Not already a TimeformUS member? Sign up
I’ll try to get in and get out quickly Sunday (before getting too deep in the NFL playoffs, huh) by playing an early pick five that lines up this way:
Race 1: R Lucky Dice (4), a close second at 2-5 at this same bottom-rung N3L level four weeks ago, sure looks like the proverbial free-space gimme when facing a soft group in the noon Eastern opener.
With two stakes as part of the sequence, here is my early pick four ticket for Gulfstream on Saturday.
Race 2
The first stakes of the day, the Limehouse at six furlongs, this race has three horses that seem a cut above the others. They include Final Jeopardy (6), a first-out maiden winner; Combination (2), third most recently in a stakes after a debut win; and speedy Parx Racing invader Splicethemainbrace (7).
Race 3
