Trainer W.V. Armata saddles Gran Bid (#5, ML 6-1) in Sunday's seventh race at Woodbine, a 1 1/8-mile allowance on the all-weather track. Since Jan. 1, 2014, Armata is winning at a 25 percent clip in route races, for a return on investment of $6.28.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Two contenders in turf races and a main-track longshot in a sprint stakes are worth consideration Sunday at Del Mar.

Race 1

Most of the time, it is a fool’s errand trying to find value in a six-horse field. Maybe this allowance turf sprint for fillies and mares is an exception.

Trainer Ron Ellis saddles Ferocious (#1, ML 6-1) in Saturday's ninth race at Del Mar, a six-furlong claiming race.  Since Jan., 1, 2014, Ellis is winning at a 33 percent clip when saddling a horse switching from turf to dirt, for a return on investment of $3.70.

Let’s take a stab at Saturday’s $200,000 guaranteed late pick four from Aqueduct, featuring the $100,000 Artie Schiller Stakes.
It’s certainly a difficult sequence with juvenile maiden special weight races chock-full of first-time starters bookending the bet. Thus, we won’t have access to any notable tote action on potentially live newcomers.

Here are some thoughts and Ticketmaker opinions:

Race 6

A – The Big Mo (3)

A – Wild Impulse (8)

A – Isofass (9)

B – Silver Romeo (10)

Let’s look at Sunday’s late pick four, which features the $100,000 Key Cents for 2-year-old New York-bred fillies. 

Race 6

Not especially enamored of any single horses at decent prices on the Delta Jackpot card, and the threat of rain Saturday also is cause for handicapping/bet-formulating pause. So, let’s take the obvious road here and dive into the all-stakes pick four spanning races 4-7 and landing on the $1 million Jackpot itself.

The feature on Saturday’s card at Del Mar is the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap. It’s scheduled as the eighth race of a nine-race card, and it’s the middle leg of the late pick three sequence.

RACE 7

Before we go any further, may we wish all of you a gobbling good time on Thanksgiving.  As we indicated in our Pick last week, we weren’t all that enthusiastic about either filly and they ran as we expected, but didn’t hit the board.  However, on that same BreezeFigs card there were two maiden winners and two stakes winners who kicked off BreezeFigs exactas, and one of those was also a BreezeFigs trifecta.  The exactas came at Aqueduct ($15),  Del Mar ($7.50 in the stake), Gulfstream West ($226) and Laure

LOOSE MONEY
Trainer: Gustavo Delgado
Last race: Nov. 15, 9th
Finish: 4th by 3 1/4
Beyer: 65
He was making a potential winning move along the inside in midstretch when he ducked inward at the gap and was checked sharply to lose all chance in a $40,000 maiden turf race.

CRACK THAT WHIP
Trainer: Mike McDonald
Last race: Nov. 13, 7th
Finish: 1st by 2 1/2
Beyer: 74
A router, she showed that she’s a very capable closing sprinter, coming from off slow fractions to win a first-level Ontario-sired allowance going away. It shouldn’t take her many tries to clear the nonwinners-of-three OS allowance condition.