Sunday is closing day at Los Alamitos, and I'll look to tackle the late pick three.

Race 7

For many circuits, Sunday is the last day of racing before Christmas week hits full swing. And that’s certainly true at Los Alamitos Race Course, where Sunday is closing day before Southern California racing takes a short break before Santa Anita opens Dec. 26.

The Sunday card is hardly a blockbuster one, particularly coming a day after the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity headlined the Saturday races. 

Nevertheless, some good wagering prospects exist.

Here are horses I like Sunday at Los Al:

Los Alamitos Race Course ends its card with a pick three Saturday, though in my mind it might as well be considered a pick two. There appears to be a “free square” in the middle leg, the eighth race, the Los Alamitos Futurity – a race in which DORTMUND (3) appears lengths the best.

Hyped long before his career debut, he made a believer out of this handicapper even before seeing him run in person at Churchill Downs last month. Catching him a few days earlier when schooling in the paddock, he was an obvious standout – in terms of size, muscle, and appearance.

As New York is my home circuit, I tend to play only the better quality races at other tracks. That modus operandi simplifies the approach to Sunday’s program at Gulfstream Park, where I’m passing on the two $6,250 claiming contests as well as the five races for maiden claimers.

That leaves race 6, a one-mile optional claimer at a mile; race 8, a maiden special weight for 2-year-old turf fillies; and race 9, an allowance open to all comers at five furlongs on the grass.

Took a long look at the first three races today and couldn’t find anything to recommend, so I’ll do a little Christmas shopping early on Panic Saturday before making sure I’m all set for race 4 (post 2:02 Eastern).

In race 4, we’ll take the base on balls being offered through class-plunging outside-speed loomer SCARLET COAL when starting off this pick-three ticket:

Race 4 – 8
Race 5 – 2, 4, 9
Race 6 – A: 12;  B: 1, 2, 4, 7, 14

Saturday’s card at Los Alamitos Race Course will be highlighted by the Grade I Los Alamitos Futurity – a race which will feature the current favorite for the 2015 Kentucky Derby, Dortmund. Unless you think he’s vulnerable it will be difficult to make any money off that race individually, but there are multi-race wagers which can prove profitable. I will expand upon the late pick four I put together in the video we put out earlier this week, as well as play one race included in the sequence individually.

Late pick four

RACE 6

If the fields remain intact, there will be 2,744 possible pick three combinations involving races 8 through 10 at Gulfstream Park on Saturday – the Tropical Park Derby; an allowance scheduled for turf at 1 7/16 miles; and the Tropical Park Oaks.

We’ll try to pick up some last-minute holiday cash by whittling away 2,699 of those combos, and putting in a $45 ticket taking five horses in the Tropical Park Derby and three each in the allowance and Tropical Park Oaks.

We were frankly surprised that one of the keys we picked last week, Ocean Knight, paid a fairly generous $6, but this colt will be heard from again; our other two keys in the race, Saratoga Wildcat (5th) and Cort (6th), though disappointing, will not be long in winning.  Though Ocean Knight was the only BreezeFigs maiden to win at Aqueduct during the week, there were 16 others who broke their maidens across the country, headed by five at Gulfstream, including Distinta at $45, who kicked off a

NEW YORK – The big race of the day Saturday obviously is the Grade 1, $500,000 Los Alamitos Futurity. Unfortunately, it drew a field of only five. Small fields also are the case in the two $50,000 stakes at Fair Grounds, the Sugar Bowl and Letellier Memorial, which drew fields of five and six, respectively. The opposite is true, however, in the two $75,000 stakes at Gulfstream, where both the Tropical Park Derby and the Tropical Park Oaks drew 16 entrants.

Tropical Park Derby

In this webinar, Mike Hogan and Peter Thomas Fornatale demonstrate many of the features of DRF Formulator, particularly how and when to access the trainer data.

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