A traditional daily double to start the day, and then four horses scattered around later on the card who may prove valuable for your various single-race and multiple-race wagers.

The main track was fast Wednesday, sloppy Thursday, and muddy Friday, yet outside paths produced the vast majority of winners on all three days – a trend that also was apparent to some extent during opening week, particularly Oct. 31.

As the surface continues to dry out and with the mercury expected to dip into the 30s overnight, it’s anyone’s guess whether the outside flow will remain in place Saturday.

Frost King Stakes

Goodoldhockeygame (5-2) and Three Ring Circus (12-1) are two Bob Tiller-trained geldings owned by Frank DiGiulio Jr. in the $125,000 Frost King, for Ontario-sired juveniles.

Goodoldhockeygame is unbeaten in two starts, including a rail-closing score in the six-furlong Bull Page Stakes. The half-brother to 2010 Canadian champion female sprinter Indian Apple Is shouldn’t mind the stretch-out to seven furlongs.

5^th race – Maiden $40,000, 7 furlongs, Polytrack

Some price potential in a maiden turf route (race 6) and competitive fields in races 7 and 8 give some appeal to the pick three incorporating those races.

Race 6

Friday, Nov. 7, preview

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Though the turf course is firm for Friday’s races at Churchill Downs, already two horses were early scratches from the featured eighth race, a third-level allowance at a mile on grass.

Jac’s Fact (#4) and Trace Creek (#8) are out, leaving the race with just six. The aforementioned horses would have been longshots, but regardless, any scratches to an already-short field are undesirable.

We thought Super Beau was an excellent “key” last week and even though he was probably ridden too confidently, he showed great speed at the end to complete a $117 exacta, while Bader, whom we also liked a lot, hung on after contesting the pace to complete a $852 trifecta.  Now we come to the “hush our mouths” part: After several weeks when there were multiple BreezeFigs gimmicks across the country in maiden races, last week actually produced none.  The only BreezeFigs gimmick, in fact, came in the off-the-

Turf racing: Wait and see

After a drizzly, dreary Thursday, showery weather was expected to linger in the New York area overnight, which may put a damper on turf racing yet again.

Three races are scheduled for  grass, all of which are in the pick six sequence: a maiden special weight at a mile (race 4); and a pair of optional claiming races for New York-breds (the sixth  and eighth races) that would shorten from 1 1/16 miles to a mile in the event of a surface switch.

Percussion returns

Jockey race tightens

Luis Contreras won half of Wednesday’s eight races to draw within three wins of leading rider Patrick Husbands, who scored once on the card. Husbands’s 146 wins at the meet came on 574 mounts, compared with a whopping 790 rides for Contreras.

Eurico Da Silva is a clear third in the standings, with 122 victories. Rounding out the top 10 are Justin Stein (89), Jesse Campbell (84), Emma-Jayne Wilson (70), David Moran (55), Gary Boulanger (50), Gerry Olguin (48), and Sheena Ryan (38).

Life beyond the Breeders’ Cup finds two Grade 3 stakes races on Saturday’s schedule – the $200,000 Long Island Handicap at Aqueduct and the $100,000 River City Handicap at Churchill Downs – as well as the stakes-packed Sunshine Millions Preview card at Gulfstream Park West.

River City Handicap