My Best Brother dug in to lead every step of the way in the Oceanside.
We’ll complain about a scratch and a short field in the $150,000 La Jolla Handicap (Grade II) for 3-year-olds over 1 1/16-miles on Del Mar’s turf course, but rejoice with prohibitive favorite Broken Sword being a late defection from the $75,000 Wine Country Debutante for 2-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs at Santa Rosa.
A field of four goes in the La Jolla, which makes us wonder what happened to all the runners that filled two divisions of the Oceanside on opening day.
My Best Brother is the 2-to-1 favorite and 121-lb. high weight shooting to streak to a fourth consecutive victory for Julio Canani. The son of Stormy Atlantic wired one division of the Oceanside and will no doubt be winging on the front end again today.
Five-time winner and 5-to-2 second choice Chips All In could force the issue early even with the usually patient Garrett Gomez taking over for the first time. The North Light colt missed by a neck in the other division of the Oceanside and has already notched three stakes wins through 10 career starts.
A pair of 3-to-1 shots round out the field, with Blingo still trying to live up to the hype he generated with an impressive maiden score in November and Old Time Hockey looking to turn the tables after a third-place finish behind My Best Brother in the Oceanside.
The trip to Northern California came with little hope of a trip to the winner’s circle and satisfaction with Egyptian Femme just hitting the board in the Wine Country Debutante. However, with 4-to-5 morning line favorite Broken Sword scratched leaving a field of six, that picture changes and the improved effort we’re expecting from our 2-year-old daughter of Globalize could land her the top prize.
Time to get lucky as …
We’re off to the races!
Pick 4 -
Leg 1 – Race 7 (4) – No. 4 Smart and Single was smashing on debut and after a trio of solid spins over this surface there’s no reason to believe she won’t repeat in her first against winners at short odds.
Leg 2 – Race 8 (ALL) – Four-horse fields are not fun to handicap and not easy either so we’ll use them all.
Leg 3 – Race 9 (2,4,6,8,11,14) – Non-winners of two lifetime and that almost always means a spread so we’ll use No. 2 Gregor, No. 4 Toy, No. 6 You Little Devil, No. 8 Meadow Road, No. 11 Secret Spy and No. 14 Distinctive Dude.
Leg 4 – Race 10 (5,6,7,9) – Expect an improved effort with a clean break for No. 6 Valen in his second start for Jack Carava and add the trio of No. 5 Buds Pal, No. 7 War Face No. 9 Run’n On Residuals.
Recap – (4) w (ALL) w (2,4,6,8,11,14) w (5,6,7,9) – Total cost of ticket = $48
Yesterday’s Result – (+$570.05)
Total for current Del Mar meet – (+$636.35)
Total from 12/26/10 – 7/15/12 – (-$1,571.15)
Pick 5 –
Leg 1 – Race 1 (3,7) – No. 7 Scooter Bird has been training lights out for potent connections and need only avoid breaking out from the far outside post to make a big impact.
No. 3 Kinz Funky Money has the experience edge after a third-place finish behind of pair of promising runners over this strip on July 22.
Leg 2 – Race 2 (2,4,5) – A trio of turf claimers with No. 2 Euroglide, No. 4 Porfido and No. 5 Scorpion Time.
Leg 3 – Race 3 (1,5,6,8) – No. 8 Primed and Ready is sitting on a win after a pair of runner-up efforts to begin his career, but class-droppers No. 5 Lico and No. 6 Confederate Recon could ruin those plans.
No. 1 True Again is also worth inclusion in his bow off a steady work tab.
Leg 4 – Race 4 (1,2,4,7) – No. 4 Streets of Heaven dusted some cobwebs off with a nice comeback runner-up effort on July 6. He couldn’t chase down No. 1 Striking Spirit, but should have a better shot to do so today with more heat on the front end.
No. 2 Brereton Park and No. 7 Bronze Fox are the bombers we need to make this ticket pay big.
Leg 5 – Race 5 (2,3,6,7,9) – A five-pack of maiden allowance runners on turf with No. 2 Time Lord, No. 3 Seal the Deal, No. 6 Corinthian’s Song, No. 7 Berlusconi and No. 9 Bandolim.
Recap – (3,7) w (2,4,5) w (1,5,6,8) w (1,2,4,7) w (2,3,6,7,9) – Total cost of ticket = $240
Yesterday’s Result – (-$240)
Total for current Del Mar meet – (+$16,646.45)
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!
