THE ZIP ZIP MAN
Trainer: Mike Stidham
Last race: Dec. 4, 7th
Finish: 3rd by 2 1/4
Beyer: 75
Broke from the rail and got sawed off in the first furlong, then was blocked most of the stretch run, coming through a tiny opening to finish a fine third, given the circumstances. Talented, precocious 2-year-old of 2015 finally showing some spark again more than a year after his best races. 

Dec. 3

Aqueduct

Go for Wand (race 8)

Sunday is  the final day of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s Bing Crosby season, and there is essentially a pick six carryover of more than $89,000 awaiting horseplayers. Under normal circumstances, the $89,000 carryover would apply to the jackpot portion of the pick six; because it’s closing day and everything must go, it basically becomes a traditional carryover. Here’s a look at the pick six sequence.

Race 4

The late pick four looks like an appealing play on opening day at Gulfstream, with a couple of wide-open races and a seemingly solid single.

Step one – find the likely winner. Step two – find the likely overlay.

The task is straightforward in a pair of graded stakes Saturday at Del Mar – the Grade 2 Bayakoa Handicap (race 6) for fillies and mares, and the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby (race 7) for 3-year-olds on grass.

Vale Dori is likely to win the Bayakoa, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race in which she is favored at 7-5. Vale Dori enters with superior Beyer Figures and sharp recent form. She is the only two-turn graded-stakes-caliber filly in the field.

Sunday’s 14-race closing day card at Woodbine is headed by the Grade 3 Valedictory Stakes, a 1 3/4-mile marathon.

Well, the four win/gimmick streak ended but we still wound up with half a loaf rather than a whole one—twice. Our gimmick Pick, It’s Mike’s Turn, got nailed at the wire to complete a $23.60 exacta with the favorite, and our top choice, Aberdeen Island, who was bet heavily down to second choice, ran well to be fourth to get into a $246 superfecta. We will try to do better this week.

At this point in the year, turf racing at Aqueduct can be inscrutable. With it being the end of the turf season in New York, some horses now seem incapable of reproducing form that would have been superior a month or two ago. The problem is, identifying which horses are simply out of gas and which still have a big effort left in them can be guesswork.

Let’s take a look at the late pick four at Turfway Park on Saturday.

Race 6

The Holiday Inaugural looks loaded with speed, and I’m hoping that MELALEUCA (8) can strike from just off the pace. It appeared that the connections made a concerted effort to take this mare back in her most recent start, and she rewarded them with a rallying runner-up effort behind the favored Clairenation.

The most significant stakes action Saturday takes place at Del Mar, where the Grade 1, $300,000 Hollywood Derby and the Grade 2, $200,000 Bayakoa Handicap will be decided. But Saturday is also opening day of the Gulfstream Park Championship Meet, with the Claiming Crown series of nine starter stakes events making for a wild betting card.

Claiming Crown Tiara