God's Tipster's Friday Saratoga Pick: The 10th, The West Point, is turf route with Pletcher horse at a price
Readers of Bettors Insider are getting a one-race preview of my day’s selections. To sign up for daily emails with the day’s FULL selections and weekly Saturday videos, click here
Thursday’s Race Recap from Saratoga:
(All odds US)
Race replays for yesterday’s races from Saratoga can be found here:
Saratoga:
Race 3: 1st@ 3.80/1 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Race 6: 8th@ 13.90/1
Race 8: 8th@ 15.70/1
Race 9: 10th@ 19.20/1
We began our day with Race 3. We had some anxious moments as Royal Spirit was taken back to last behind a slow pace but he was given a smart ride by Irad Ortiz and rode the rails before knifing between horses en route to a 7/2 win. In Race 6, Champagne Ivy wasn’t up to the task in this marathon stalking the pace in fourth before fading in the stretch drive. In Race 8, Handbelle returned from the long layoff looking like she needed the race. Never really pushed on she raced near the back of the pack most of the way. In Race 9, Missy Greer gave us a thrill leading til the top of the stretch at 18/1 odds before raising the white flag and fading.
Our fingers are crossed for fast and firm conditions for New York Bred Day! Every horse running on today’s Travers-Eve card was bred in the state of New York. Let’s get right to it!
Friday at Saratoga:
Race 10: Jerry the Nipper - 1 pt win (US Morning Line Odds: 8/1)
The West Point is run at 1 1/16 miles on turf and we have another evenly matched field of runners who routinely beat one another so I’m siding with a new face in the group. We’ve seen how dangerous trainer Todd Pletcher can be with a front end runner on turf. We don’t have to look back further than Thursday’s races to see he won in this fashion with Beside Herself at 8/1 odds. I was there to see Jerry the Nipper race on turf for the first time last time out. He gunned to the lead, set a rapid pace and continued on, finishing in a scorching 1:32. Of the six runners who have returned from that race all six have either maintained or improved on that last race. He will likely face some pressure from Somelikeithotbrown but that one’s taking blinkers off for the very first time in his career. I’m wondering if their goal is to relax him a little. That’ll work for us as we look for Jerry the Nipper to go gate to wire.
Best of luck to all our members playing Friday’s races from Saratoga!!