A pair of graded stakes wins to begin his career would make Know More the top juvenile in California heading into the fall.
A fitting end to a memorable meet as we carryover one last time to the tune of $194,259 on a mandatory payout Pick-6 day where the closing day feature is the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity (Grade I) for 2-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs on the main track.
My complete preview of the Del Mar Futurity for America’s Best Racing can be viewed by clicking here.
The Futurity is an impossible race to handicap with very little form to go off and no more than a couple of the 12 juvenile runners being considered throw outs.
Off a debut win in the Best Pal Stakes (Grade II) here on August 5, Know More is given the nod as the 5-to-2 morning line favorite, but he’s by no means a solid favorite considering he’s only raced once and he beat a pair of fillies that returned to finish off the board in this past weekend’s Del Mar Debutante (Grade I).
The trio of stakes on the undercard is led by more 2-year-olds at a mile on turf in the $100,000 Oak Tree Juveline Turf, another race that is challenging to narrow down.
The filly version of this race resulted in a 30-to-1 bomber on Monday, and while a similar result is possible, the trio of shorter prices that exit a maiden allowance over this layout have the advantage.
Shining Copper is the 7-to-2 favorite after tracking and rallying late to win that maiden turf event on August 15 by half a length. A son of turf specialist Aragorn, there’s no reason to expect he won’t move forward and produce a similar result today.
After clearing to the lead going a mile on turf, Power Broker settled for third beaten a length in Shining Copper’s victory and is the 4-to-1 second choice today. With the first two-turn try under his belt he can improve here, but is likely to find some company on the front end from runners stretching out.
Despite finishing ahead of Power Broker while gaining on Shining Copper to miss by just half a length, Buckleberry Grey is an 8-to-1 long shot on the morning line. The Unbridled’s Song colt returned to work a solid five furlongs on the main track, but his trainer, David Hofmans, is winless at the meet and does not excel with runners making their second career start.
A pair of $85,000 six-furlong main track sprints rounds out the stakes action with females in the C.E.R.F. and males in the Pirate’s Bounty.
As the 5-to-2 morning line favorite, Reneesgotzip is controlling speed and likely winner of the C.E.R.F, while Mensa Heat is the 3-to-1 favorite in a wide-open Pirate’s Bounty despite entering on a five-race losing streak.
We’ll take a few weeks off during Fairplex to recharge the batteries and be back for opening day at Santa Anita on September 28.
Thanks for your readership and for one final time this summer …
We’re off to the races!
Pick 4 -
Leg 1 – Race 7 (3,5,9,11) – No. 5 Half Dome Dude is the top pick over a surface he loves after going way too wide last time.
We’ll add the trio of No. 3 Magic Beam, No. 9 Southern Style and No. 11 Floating Feather.
Leg 2 – Race 8 (1,2,5,6,9,10) – We’ll use half of the Futurity field with No. 1 Gabriel Charles, No. 2 Capo Bastone, No. 5 Know More, No. 6 Heir of Storm, No. 9 Caballa Del Cielo and No. 10 Rolling Fog.
Leg 3 – Race 9 (3,4,6,10) – The top pick is No. 10 Changethechannel stretching out after two sprints and with the speed to get to the front after breaking from the outside.
No. 3 Stanwyck will surely go favored after closing to finish third in a similar race on July 25, No. 4 Readyforhercloseup gets Bejarano back off the long layoff and No. 6 Chestnut Moon has been training smartly over Polytrack for her first synthetic try.
Leg 4 – Race 10 (1,2,3) – The place to be on turf towards the end of the meet has been towards the front so we’ll use the trio in that spot and drawn inside with No.1 Reachforthebucks, No. 2 Te Rapa and No. 3 Quail Hill.
Recap – (3,5,9,11) w (1,2,5,6,9,10) w (3,4,6,10) w (1,2,3) – Total cost of ticket = $144
Monday’s Result – (-$216)
Total for current Del Mar meet – (-$1,251.45)
Total from 12/26/10 – 7/15/12 – (-$1,571.15)
Pick 5 –
Leg 1 – Race 1 (2) – What to do with No. 2 Da Ruler? Being given away for $10,000 after blitzing allowance runners by nearly six lengths while earning a 100 Beyer, if it’s not him it could be any of the others.
Leg 2 – Race 2 (ALL) – A wide-open Cal-bred maiden claiming sprint and we’ll punch all 11 runners.
Leg 3 – Race 3 (3) – No. 3 Reneesgotzip defeated older runners in her first try against elders last time and has been training up her usual storm after getting a three-month respite. Blazing fast early, there doesn’t appear to be anything to stay close to her, and she should be long gone as a solid Pick-5 single.
Leg 4 – Race 4 (2,4,7,8,9) – More Cal-bred maidens, this time allowance runners stretching out to seven furlongs, and we’ll use No. 2 Sophie’s Secret, No. 4 Maddog Maddie, No. 7 A Little Luckier, No. 8 Boller Bomb and No. 9 Sacred Delight.
Leg 5 – Race 5 (ALL) – The trio from above should have the advantage with experience of the layout, but a bomber is again a big possibility so we’ll use all nine runners.
Recap – (2) w (ALL) w (3) w (2,4,7,8,9) w (ALL) – Total cost of ticket = $247.50
Monday’s Result – (-$144)
Total for current Del Mar meet – (+$15,506.10)
Total from 7/20/11 – 7/15/12 – (+$1,874.55)
Best Bet of the Day – Can now be found in the free analysis section at www.theracingedition.com along with an early Pick-4 ticket and a consensus box for the entire card.
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For more Del Mar action check out Jarrod Horak’s Pick 6 Blog.
Good luck!
