Friday at Saratoga: God's Tipster has three picks, including the 9th race Curlin Stakes, a Travers prep
Thursday’s Recap from Saratoga:
(All odds US)
Replays from Saratoga can be found here:
Saratoga:
Race 1: 1st@ 2.20/1 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
Race 5: 5th@ 1.50/1
Race 10: 4th@ 3.00/1
We led the day off with a winner as Johnnypump closed from off the pace to run down the early leaders in Race 1. In Race 5, Shinjuku was announced as wearing a bar shoe late and that spelled doom racing wide on a muddy track. In Race 10, Bonkers was hard used to get to the early lead but had nothing left at the end fading to fourth.
We’ve got rain expected throughout the evening at Saratoga and it’s rained for most of the afternoon. Tomorrow’s looking like a relatively sunny day so I’ll be staying away from the turf races as I’m not sure if they’ll stay on turf. The dirt races should be run over a relatively fast surface. Let’s get to work:
Friday picks for Saratoga:
Race 1: Free Ninety Nine - 1 pt win (Us Morning Line Odds: 8/1)
Trainer Mike Maker has been on a roll at Saratoga winning with 23% of his starters and while turf used to be his forte, he’s done very well with his first time starters so far this meet - almost always outrunning their odds. Free Ninety Nine is by Honor Code out of a Stormy Atlantic mare so if the track still has moisture in it, she should relish that. There are a lot of question marks in this race so we’ll take a chance with a well bred firster from a hot barn.
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Race 7: Winter Pool - 1 pt win (US Morning Line Odds: 9/2)
Allowance runners race a mile and an eighth and super trainer Chad Brown’s barn has gotten off to a bit of a slow start but they’re due to start heating up. Winter Pool is bred to run far better than he showed in his first few starts. Last time out he showed some more promise but Brown usually has his runners primed for the Saratoga meet. This one races third time off a layoff today and this distance should hit him right between the eyes.
Race 9: Harvard - 2 pts win - BEST BET (US Morning Line Odds: 6/1)
It’s the Curlin Stakes! One of two preps for the Travers Stakes - the highlight of the Saratoga meet. LOTS of speed signed on here and First Captain is likely to take the bulk of the attention on the odds board but he regressed in his most recent start and I’m looking elsewhere. Harvard put up an identical speed figure last out to First Captain but he did it at today’s distance and he defeated older runners. The place horse that day - Dack Janiels returned to win next time out here at Saratoga. Looking for Harvard to school this field in the Curlin Stakes.
Best of luck 🍀🍀🍀to everyone playing Friday’s races from Saratoga!