Saturday, Jan. 17

Fair Grounds - Col. E. R. Bradley Handicap (race 8)

COMMENT: String King had made the bulk of his noise vs. statebreds, but showed he fit with these when he finished fourth in this race last year, beaten a length. The 7-year-old may be even better this year as he parlayed a smart win in the Louisiana Turf last month into a graded stakes win here. He chased pacesetter Gentleman’s Kitten, allowed that foe to clear off to a big lead early, steadily reeled him in, and edged away late.

Today’s late pick four at Gulfstream looks like a difficult sequence. It’s book-ended by maiden races on the grass featuring several first-time turf runners. Handicappers could make a case for almost all of the horses in those races, and pick four players are betting blind into a last leg that features a debut runner trained by Chad Brown. Ideally, it would be nice to get a gauge on tote action, but that’s not going to happen with this type of wager.

I’ll make a small play featuring a few price horses as there is potential for a large pick four payout.

ARCADIA, Calif. – On a Santa Anita card with apparently limited overlays, the best way to fashion multi-race wagers Sunday is to limit the downside.

Shoot for the moon? Nope. Most lower-odds entrants (not all) enter without a knock. The low-payoff expectation is sufficient reason to keep the outlay low. It’s a good day to “bet a little to win a little.” A pair of daily doubles is the extent of the action, $20 total.

The possibility of a vulnerable favorite in race 1 makes the first double appealing – more so because the key horse in race 2 is a non-favorite.

Pickings seem slim to start the card with a couple short fields comprising the traditional daily double and a completely inscrutable maiden claimer as race 4. However, a couple horses later on the card pique my interest and appear quite useful, not only for in-race wagering but also for your various multi-race wagers.

Race 5

Depending on how you’re going, there are a lot of opportunities to get well or get into trouble on Saturday’s card at Gulfstream. But I’m focusing on the latter portion of the program, specifically the late pick four, because I think the early part of the card has the potential to break chalky.

Morning-line favorite Cheyenne Nation is spotted to win in the opener, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s back with trainer Chad Brown. Cheyenne Nation won three times for Brown at the start of his career from 2009-11.

Saturday’s card at Santa Anita leaves something to be desired. I don’t love the stakes races carded on the back half, and the front side of the card isn’t terribly appealing. That being said, I will put together a few tickets using DRF TicketMaker and take a shot at the pick five.

RACE 1

:: Build your pick five ticket with DRF TicketMaker | DRF TicketMaker (Mobile)

RACE 8

A deep, competitive race 7 and a filly I consider among the elite who can be your linchpin makes the day’s final pick three (races 7-9) attractive.

Race 7

:: Build your pick three ticket with DRF TicketMaker | DRF TicketMaker (Mobile)

Update Alert Redux: Please refer to the second paragraph below for news of a major update to BreezeFigs which eliminates a lot of superfluous text from this column.

Horseplayers know that the best way to encourage racetracks to lower takeout is to support those that embrace that concept. So, this handicapper is stepping up and supporting a track doing just that.

Sam Houston offers a 12 percent takeout on daily doubles, pick threes, pick fours, and even the pick five, per data posted on the horseplayersassociation.org website. And there is no better time to play Sam Houston than Saturday, when the track has four stakes as part of its nighttime card.