DEL MAR, Calif. – Horseplayers who enjoy betting against favorites will appreciate the Del Mar card on Sunday. Overlays are sprinkled throughout the program, including five who are listed below.
Race 3
The knock on CAMINETTO in this allowance sprint is price. Fourth last out in a Grade 1, he drops in class as the 2-1 favorite. Is he the most likely winner? Yes. Is he a good bet? Not necessarily.
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DRF Bets GamePlan
Closer looks for Arlington Park, Del Mar, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, Remington Park, Saratoga, and Woodbine, and spot plays and live longshots for Arlington Park, Del Mar, Monmouth Park, and Saratoga. Picks are chronologically listed, so you can build and plan your wagering day.
Race 3: I am going to start my pick three with (2) CAMINETTO as my top pick. He only beat one horse, but it was still a good effort in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby, and he will certainly appreciate the class relief with the drop into this $62,500 optional-claiming race. (6) RAISED SECRET beat CAMINTTO prior to a failed effort in the one-mile Bertrando at Los Alamitos. (7) RED OUTLAW has been off since December but can fire fresh and likes to win races. We’ll also assume he will be able to handle running over dirt for the first time.
A’s: 2
B’s: 6, 7
Last week’s simple $24 Whitney Day late pick four play brought back $216.50, so let’s plow some of the profits back into the $500,000-guaranteed pick four on Fourstardave Day. We’ll use the same basic strategy of singling in one leg and spreading as necessary in the others.
Every once in a while you come across a horse who you like and whose placement on the card gives you all sorts of options. That means that if you’re right about said horse, it can translate into cashing multiple tickets on in-race and multi-race wagers. Saturday may present such a chance at the beach as PUBLIC POLICY looks well situated to be such a wagering linchpin in race 5.
Trainer Terry Genecco saddles True Shot (#9, ML 12-1) in Friday’s fifth race at Finger Lakes, the six-furlong Niagara Stakes. Since Jan. 1, 2014, Genecco is winning at a 35 percent clip when saddling a horse in a sprint, for a return on investment of $3.69.
In the Belmont Oaks on July 4, won in a runaway by Lady Eli, there was a virtual triple dead heat for fourth. Strict Compliance and Senterio Italia finished in an actual dead heat for fourth, with Consumer Credit just a neck behind them in sixth. Now, those three return as the favorites in a field of five for the Grade 2 Lake Placid, the Friday feature at Saratoga.
Scooter's Choice (#10, ML 20-1) returns in Friday's eighth race at Remington Park, a five-furlong allowance on turf. It will be her first start since finishing first by three lengths in a claiming race June 12 at Lone Star Park. The second- and third-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Santiago Gonzalez could have a big Saturday at Del Mar. He rides Del Mar Oaks favorite Prize Exhibit in race 8, and the most likely winners of races 7 and 9. Neither is favored.
Gonzalez entered the week fifth in the Del Mar jockey standings. His Saturday mounts are keys to “all-single” daily double and pick 3 plays in races 7-9.
:: See Brad Free’s pick three play in DRF TicketMaker and bet it with DRF Bets
Race 7
We’re not saying we would have picked the winner as part of a key gimmick play, but two of the three horses we really liked in last week’s Pix finished second and third resulting in a $166 exacta, $96 quinella and $2,472 trifecta. Sometimes you have to just shrug. There was no shrugging, however, for 14 BreezeFigs 2-year-olds who broke their maidens last week, six of whom were the top part of gimmicks. Six of them came home at Del Mar, including two who headed BreezeFigs exactas, one who headed a BreezeFigs