Horse Racing: Tuesday Garrity tries speedy Sunland in New Mexico 

You may have noticed that in the races we have been analyzing, and for which we have been making picks, we've been moving around a lot: we could easily have named this section, this corner of the bar, as it were, The Itinerant Horseplayer. And there has been a good reason for our travels, a factor known to any dyed-in-the-wool degenerate like us: Weather. Track condition is always supremely important, but doubly so this time of the year, when the vagaries of the winter weather gods can change the condition of a racing surface from race to race, let alone from day to day. We wander partly due to the desire to escape the winter doldrums in the East, but the bigger reason is that we are looking for an oval whose tendencies allow some measure of predictability when making picks many hours in advance of post time.

It is for that meteorological reason that today we travel to New Mexico, and to Sunland Park, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. It's not as warm there this time of year as many Easterners think -- Tuesday's high is forecast to be 53 -- but it is supposed to be dry, which gives us at least a shot at getting a racing surface amenable to some serious handicapping.

The dirt at Sunland is pure Southwest, pure Cowboy and that means speed: among the ten-gallon hats and giant belt buckles are horsemen and horsewomen who recognize that the local oval mandates horses with early zip. A horse doesn’t have to get the lead to win here, but enough speed to gain tactical position early is a must: Horses just don't win by sweeping around the field the way they do with some frequency in the East. We've always had an affinity for tracks like us, because they remind us of the late, great Hollywood Park, whose Friday night speed bias was almost legendary: it sent us out into the misty Angeleno night flush with cash more than once.

The card at Sunland Tuesday is a very playable one. No, it's not the Breeders Cup, but for a Tuesday in January, it's plenty good enough: the races may be cheap, but they have deep and full fields, and we can always find a play on cards like these.

We will start with a bang in the first race, a five-furlong $10,000 claiming sprint for older New Mexico-bred fillies and mares. There's a field of six, and they're seemingly pretty evenly matched, but we like 5-Back Seat Kiss, at 7-2 ML. She has the highest last race Beyer Speed Figure, by a significant margin, is trained by red-hot Dick Cappellucci (30% win rate at the current Sunland Park meeting), and possesses the requisite early speed to be in contention. We'll wager $10 to win on Back Seat Kiss.

We also have quite a fancy for 4-Ghostly Who, in Race 2 at Sunland, a restricted $10k claimer for the boys. In fact, we think that Ghostly Who is the best play on the card: any of his last three Beyer Speed Figures is good enough to win this race, and he's dropping in class, which means he may even just run better. We think he is a strong play. We will bet $25 on Ghostly Who, and we'll also pound the early double, betting $10 on the Back Seat Kiss-Ghostly Who combo.

We are also going to take a shot in the featured 8th Race at Sunland, a non-winners of two allowance at 6 furlongs for older horses. There are a couple of obvious contenders here, including 3-Valentine Divine (3-1), 5-K P Creed (2-1) and 6-Percy Fawcett (3-1). These all fit the conditions of the race, but we are going to take a stab with 1-Coils Gold (8-1). He's a five-year-old who was formerly running in the big leagues (Southern Califlornia and Bob Baffert) who was recently sent to pasture in New Mexico. But we think there's still some life in him, and more important, there's still some speed: he won his last race stalking a hot pace at Zia Park, and in this one, breaking from the rail, there's really no option for him other than to hit the gas early. We think he goes right to the front and stays there all the way, and we'll take the 8-1 ML on it.

Good luck at the windows.