Qaraaba can nearly match her earnings from five wins in Europe by winning her U.S. debut.
If you missed Sunday’s blog that was posted on Bleacher Report due to technical issues here, don’t worry as you didn’t miss much. The rough start to the meet continued, but with this site back up and running we look to get hot moving into the second week of racing in Inglewood.
A promising import for Simon Callaghan, Qaraaba is the 5-to-2 morning line favorite making her U.S. debut in the featured $62,500 allowance optional claimer at 1 1/16-miles on turf with a purse of $52,000. The 5-year-old British-bred daughter of Shamardal has won half of her six starts this year and 5-of-13 in her career, but has earnings of less than $50,000 to show for it.
Despite her only two wins coming against Louisiana-breds and entering on a six-race losing streak for extremely low-percentage connections, I Dazzle lures Rafael Bejarano for the first time and is the 3-to-1 second choice. The 4-year-old Hold That Tiger filly, who is making her third start in less than a month, finished as the runner-up in both local tries in allowance races while being well-beaten in a pair of graded stakes tries.
On the heels of four defeats in stakes competition, Left a Message is the 7-to-2 third choice dipping back into the allowance ranks. The 3-year-old Mr. Greeley filly packed a late punch in consecutive allowance wins earlier this year and has trained steadily since being beaten 11-lengths in the Rodeo Drive (Grade 1) at Santa Anita on September 29.
We’re off to the races!
Late Pick 4 -
Leg 1 – Race 5 (1,2,5,7) – Debuting No. 1St. Malo’s Gate is out of the same dam as Nashoba’s Key, who was a monster on turf for Carla Gaines and won her first start.
No. 2 Letthepartybegin is a threat to lead all the way in her second try around two turns, No. 5 Passionville has run the best races and No. 7 Spring Bloom is the likely favorite again after being beaten as the chalk in her last three.
Leg 2 – Race 6 (2,8) – No. 2 Last Memories usually comes running late and returns to his favorite main track overlooked at double-digit odds. There’s plenty of early pace that should fall apart in front of him at this super-elongated sprint distance and his main threat should be No. 8 Warren’s Rail Bird, who also packs a late punch.
Leg 3 – Race 7 (2,3,5,7,8) – No. 3 Qaraaba is going to get lots of attention and she might be better than the locals, but the value lies in beating her so we’ll try to with No. 2 Plaza de Indias, No. 5 Silver Hustler, No. 7 I Dazzle and No. 8 Left a Message.
Leg 4 – Race 8 (1,3,6,7,8,9,12) – No. 12 Surely Swift is compromised by the outside draw with the short run into the clubhouse meaning No. 3 Jay’s Firetruck and No. 7 Lite That Baby Up are the most likely winners.
However, we’ll use some bombs in hopes of catching a nice score with No. 1 Thirteen Black, No. 6 Debits and Credits, No. 8 Coranto and No. 9 Slew’s Flash.
Recap – (1,2,5,7) w (2,8) w (2,3,5,7,8) w (1,3,6,7,8,9,12) – Total cost of ticket = $140
Sunday’s Result – (-$216)
Total for current Hollywood Park meet – (-$768)
Total from 12/26/10 – 11/4/12 – (-$1,006.45)
Pick 5 –
Leg 1 – Race 1 (ALL) – A group of five Cal-bred first-level allowance juvenile sprinters that have done a lot of running against one another without much separation so we’ll use them all.
Leg 2 – Race 2 (3) – No. 3 Resisting Arrest has progressed with solid a.m. activity off a pair of runner-up efforts and is strictly the one to beat at short odds.
Leg 3 – Race 3 (1,4,6) – Looks chalky in this maiden allowance with No. 1 Prime Number and No. 6 Congregationalist the only pair with turf sprint experience and No. 4 Zip Cat looking extremely live for his unveiling.
Leg 4 – Race 4 (1,2,3,5,6) – No. 1 Showmethemoneyjim is a big threat for a repeat wire-to-wire score, however both his wins have come on dirt with a noticeable drop off in synthetic races so we’ll spread with No. 2 Juan’s Twin, No. 3 Go to the Pulpit, No. 5 Deal ‘Em and No. 6 Won Won Oh Five.
Leg 5 – Race 5 (1,2,5,7) – Same four as the late Pick-4.
Recap – (ALL) w (3) w (1,4,6) w (1,2,3,5,6) w (1,2,5,7) – Total cost of ticket = $150
Sunday’s Result – (-$160)
Total for current Hollywood Park meet – (-$595)
Total from 7/20/11 – 11/4/12 – (+$16,685.25)
Best Bet of the Day – Can now be found in the Pros Picks section at www.santaanita.com.
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Good luck!
