This year’s 3-year-old filly division is in disarray, especially now that the brilliant grass star Lady Eli is sidelined while battling laminitis. The eight Grade 1 races in the division so far this year have been won by seven different fillies. Lovely Maria is the only dual winner (Ashland on April 4 and Kentucky Oaks on May 1), while one Grade 1 apiece has gone to Callback (Las Virgenes on Jan.

Race 4: Based on pedigree, HONEY CHILE RYDER (#5, 15-1) is ideally suited for this 1 3/8-mile maiden race. Her dam, Honey Ryder, won nine graded stakes at distances between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 miles, including the 1 3/8-mile Robert Dick Memorial twice. The back-up will be another longshot, TIZETTE (#9, 20-1), who was a decent fourth in her career debut going 1 1/4 miles behind Bishop’s Pond, who returned to win opening day at the Spa.

As always at Saratoga, there will be a lot of focus on Sunday's late pick four, but I'm more interested in the pick three that starts in Race 8, as it's comprised entirely of the type of races I like to bet: higher class routes.

(5) MASOCHISTIC looks pretty solid in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby, and I am going to single him and then hope for bigger prices in the next two legs of the pick three that starts on Race 6.

Saturday’s featured Diana Stakes at Saratoga is the first of 15 (17 if you count the steeplechases) Grade 1 races at the meet. May they all be such brain-teasers on paper.

Even with just a seven-horse field of older grass fillies, there are at least three problems to be solved: What do you do with morning-line favorite My Miss Sophia? Is Stephanie’s Kitten tailing off or capable of reaching back and running another big one? Finally, is the New York Stakes, from which Stephanie’s Kitten and two others emerge, likelier to prove a key race or a negative key race?

Well, we tried utilizing a key horse last weekend as our linchpin for numerous multi-race and in-race wagers, but when the storms came, that race was washed off the turf, and our key horse scratched.

A week later, however, there appears to be a similar opportunity, this time with ROCK ME BABY in the California Dreamin’ Handicap (race 8).

Really interesting card nearly from start to finish, with an apparently well-matched group of 2-year-olds in the Sanford and an interesting edition of the Grade 1 Diana. Personally, I’d lay more horses at short odds on this card than play at longer prices, but that’s not an option in North American parimutuel wagering, and so, onward.

The late pick four on Saturdays at the Spa offers a $500,000 guaranteed pool, except for Whitney Day ($750,000), Travers Day ($1 million), and Woodward Day ($750,000).

The low-odds standouts Saturday at Del Mar include favorites Sheer Pleasure in the race-3 Fleet Treat Stakes, and Bayern in the race-8 San Diego Handicap.

Race-9 favorite Micks Miracle could be added to the “slam-dunk” category; he looks tough to beat in the first-level allowance sprint.

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A couple gals who just ran into one another on the grass at Santa Anita, a competitive Grade 2 San Diego and a potential single in the last leg give a late pick three (races 7-9) some appeal.

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Race 7