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Wednesday’s Race Recap from Keeneland:
(All odds US)
Keeneland:
Race 1: 2nd@ 1.68/1
Race 3: 3rd@ 4.19/1
Race 4: SCRATCH
We began our week with yet another silver medal as Fight n’ Ready was taken so far off the early pace and moved too late to catch The Gatekeeper. Had the rider moved earlier I think we would’ve won. In Race 3, Business As Usual was with the pace and battled early. She got put in between horses after Reylu Gutierrez made a deft move up the rail and she re-rallied only to be put in between horses turning for home as the eventual winner rallied outside and we had to settle for yet another minor placing. My BEST BET scratched from Race 4.
Let’s move north to sunny Aqueduct where we expect fast and firm conditions for a change. Lots of maiden turf races which I like because they can produce some BIG prices every once in a while
Let’s get to work!
Belmont at Aqueduct:
Race 9: Sugar and Speightsphere - 1 pt win (US Morning Line Odds: 8/1)
Maiden claiming fillies bred in New York close our day sprinting 6½ furlongs and we’ve got a pretty ugly field of runners here so I’m siding with a new face. Well she’s not that new, but she’s new to this group. That’s because after finishing third in her debut she’s been off for a grand total of 818 days. That’s a rarity on this circuit but the good news for her backers is that that she now races for the barn of Linda Rice, who’s very capable at getting runners to return off long layoffs. Since 2020, Rice is 2 for 6 (33%) with runners returning from breaks of 400 days or more. This runner has had a steady work tab and most recently has two five-furlong conditioning works. Because of the connections this is another situation where I think the morning line oddsmaker – who’s usually spot on – is going to be wrong and I could see this miss going off as one of the favorites by the time the gates open.
Best of luck to all our members playing Thursday’s races from Aqueduct!