Bet the horses! Garrity picks the races at Tampa Bay Downs and Gulfstream Park

After the big day in Arkansas yesterday, it’s a quiet Sunday. And now that Oaklawn Park has ended their long winter/spring meeting, the horse racing world is going to be quieter as well, at least until a few new tracks open, which will hopefully happen in the next few weeks. With the schedule light today, we have just three plays, all in Florida and all featuring female horses: one race at Tampa Bay Downs and two at Gulfstream Park. We expect fast dirt and firm turf in all of them. Let’s go.

Tampa Bay Downs, Race 7, 3:42 pm ET

Maiden Special Weight, 1 1/16 miles, Turf, 3-Year-Old Fillies

A full field of twelve goes to the post in today’s 7th in Tampa Bay, a maiden race for sophomore fillies. We expect a decent early pace, which will set the table for the late charge of our pick, 10-Fashion Mo. She’s a daughter of Uncle Mo who has one career start, when she rallied from last to grab finish second, making up nearly 13 lengths in the process. She came up just short in last out, but we think she will break her maiden today. We will bet her to win at 5-1. The bet: Tampa Bay Downs, Race 7, $35 to win on 10-Fashion Mo.

Gulfstream Park, Race 7, 3:48 pm ET

Maiden Special Weight, 1 mile, Dirt, Fillies & Mares 3 & Up

Eight go in this one-turn mile race for maiden fillies and mares. 2-Token, a Claiborne Farm homebred 3-year-old filly trained by Bill Mott, is a strong play: she ran well enough in her last race to win about 90% of the maiden races run at Gulfstream Park, but she had the misfortune of running into a filly named Envoutante, who took that maiden race so impressively that she was moved up to stakes company (she finished a decent fourth in the Honey Ryder Stakes at Gulfstream yesterday).

There is no Envoutante in this race, and we expect Token to romp: look for her to go right to the lead and not look back. We will bet her to win at 8/5. The bet: Gulfstream Park, Race 7, $40 to win on 2-Token.

Gulfstream Park, Race 9, 4:53 pm ET

Allowance, 6 ½ furlongs, Dirt, 3-Year-Old Fillies

A field of six lines up for the 9th at Gulfstream, a second-level allowance dirt sprint for 3-year-old fillies. Handicapping this race brought us back to when we were learning the game, back at Hollywood Park many years ago, and it reminded us of that time for one important reason: when there’s a lot of speed in a race, as there is in this one, take the speed of the speed, the horse who is the naturally fastest. In this case, it is 6-Boerne, who starts for Juan Avila. Her last race was good, but it was actually even better than it looks on paper: she won an allowance race by over seven lengths, and did so in wire-to-wire fashion, despite running very fast early fractions. Look for a repeat today: we expect Boerne to go right to the front and stay in front all the way around the track. We will bet her to win at 5/2. The bet: Gulfstream Park, Race 9, $40 to win on 6-Boerne.

That’s all for today. Until tomorrow, enjoy the racing, be safe, and, as always, good luck at the windows.