Summer in Southern California means racing at Del Mar. The eight-week summer meet starts July 16 and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 7. This will be the first meet since 2006 with races run on a dirt main track, ending an eight-year stretch of the all-weather Polytrack surface, mirroring a move made by Keeneland last year.
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DRF Past Performances
Mon, 07/13/2015 - 00:00
Saturday, July 11
Arlington - American Derby (race 5)
COMMENT: World Approval, the favorite after two good efforts behind one of the game’s top 3-year-old turfers, Divisidero, got the job done, but it wasn’t easy. He sat second while Nun the Less set a dawdling pace, moved up to challenge that foe into the lane, got the better of him by midstretch but then had to rebuff a challenge from Crittenden in the final half-furlong. The Grade 1 Secretariat here Aug. 15 figures next, and maybe another meeting with Divisidero and some other toughies.
Three horses catch my interest Sunday at Belmont Park, with two coming midway through the card and the other in the nightcap.
The first of the my plays – provided these horses don’t drop much from their morning lines – is RUMBLE DOLL (#1A, 5-1) in the fifth. He is a consistent performer on turf and owns competitive Beyer Speed Figures but won’t be a short price due to his relatively low-profile barn.
He also makes his second start off a layoff and has every right to move forward off a runner-up finish against similar June 7.
How heavily does this pick four play hang on A LOT (#5) in race 9? Well, a lot.
A Lot might not even truly be a miler, at least around two turns, but he is very good at seven furlongs or even this mile trip around one turn, and by rights, he should do to this field something like he did to the last one he faced on this course. The wager depends on it.
The opening leg, race 7, seems somewhat manageable, but the last two are spreads as far as I can see.
CYPRESS, Calif. – It is difficult to construct cheerful betting strategy on a racing card such as Sunday at Los Alamitos. Barring a carryover into closing day (mandatory payout day), the card offers little attraction. Small fields will do that.
The first three races have 5, 6, and 5 starters each. The feature race has six. The search for value in small fields usually is a futile chase, so the first three races are a pass.
DANZATRICE (#4, ML 8-1) ran well in the Grade 1 Acorn despite losing a front shoe on the far turn and dropping back several lengths. She re-rallied to finish fourth. The two-turn mile and a sixteenth of Saturday's 10th race at Delaware Park, the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks, is perfect for her. Lovely Maria, the heavy favorite, could be vulnerable while making her first start since winning the Kentucky Oaks 10 weeks ago.
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Interesting pick four in the middle of the Saturday Delaware Park card, with the Cape Henlopen seemingly the most difficult piece of the puzzle:
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