Breeders’ Cup Preps Headline Belmont/Santa Anita Cards
Posted on 9/26/2008 7:09:17 PM
By Pete Mitchell
Who: Curlin, Zenyatta and other division leaders in action
What: 11 Grade 1 Races
Where: Belmont Park, Santa Anita Park
When: Saturday, September 27th
Whether you’re looking at rain-soaked Belmont or sunny Santa Anita, you’ll have plenty of top-notch thoroughbred action to sink your teeth into this Saturday. Belmont has been drenched by two days worth of heavy rains, ensuring a soft turf course and a muddy main track. Santa Anita, on the other hand, will be fast and firm. Space doesn’t permit an in-depth analysis of each of the 11 Grade 1’s, so I’ll simply mention the horses I like along with their minimum acceptable prices.
Belmont 6th Race (The Beldame): Champ Ginger Punch likes the track and the mud, but note she ran third in this race last year before winning the BC Distaff. Pass.
Belmont 7th Race (The Flower Bowl Invitational): Mauralakana has been a beast lately, but Communique looks interesting on the soft ground at odds of 7-2 or better.
Belmont 8th Race (The Vosburgh): Lucky Island lost all chance at the start last out, but displayed a ton of class making a prolonged run from far back. A repeat of his Tom Fool win in the slop would come as no surprise. I’ll take him at odds of 2-1 or better.
Belmont 9th Race (The Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational): Interesting that Bobby Frankel wheels Proudinsky back on just two weeks rest. The course will be much softer than his last out vs. Big Brown…which will suit him just fine. The play at 3-1 or better.
Belmont 10th Race (The Jockey Club Gold Cup): Curlin showed a fondness for the slop in winning last year’s BC Classic at Monmouth. He’s tough to go against, but the value won’t be there. Pass.
Santa Anita 4th Race (The Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship): Red Giant made his belated 2008 debut a winning one, and he’s won at 1 ¼ miles. We may not have seen the best of this well-bred son of Giant’s Causeway just yet. The pick at odds of 5-2 or better.
Santa Anita 5th Race (The Lady’s Secret): The super-impressive Zenyatta has yet to taste defeat. This could be the day however, if Hystericalady finds the Pro-Ride surface to her liking. There’s no other speed in the race, so Hystericalady should be able to slow things down to a crawl on the front end. I’ll bet on her at odds of 1-1 or better.
Santa Anita 6th Race (The Ancient Title): Street Boss goes for six straight, but I’m passing at low odds.
Santa Anita 8th Race (The Oak Leaf): Stardom Bound’s status is questionable after she got kicked by a stable pony on Friday. Pass.
Santa Anita 9th Race (The Yellow Ribbon): Pletcher sweeps the card’s two big turf races as Wait a While goes 3-for-3 on the Santa Anita sod. I’ll bet on her at odds of 6-5 or better.
Santa Anita 10th Race (The Goodwood): Well Armed is improving with age, and 1 1/8 miles hits him right between the eyes. The pick at odds of 4-1 or better.
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Pete Mitchell has been handicapping
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