Racing immortality awaits I'll Have Another in three weeks at the Belmont Stakes after he was able to get by Bodemeister again in yesterday's Preakness Stakes.
The excitement over I’ll Have Another capturing the first two legs of the Triple Crown has been epic, as has the disappointment of missing massive scores in the final leg of the Pick-5 at Hollywood Park on both of those big days.
I’ll Have Another has demonstrated tremendous talent over this stretch and his connections deserve tons of credit going into the Belmont Stakes for the way they’ve handled his campaign and all the attention that comes with it.
Bodemeister is no slouch either, having just gotten run down in both big races, and Creative Cause danced again to finish third in the Preakness, offering further evidence of the quality crop coming from Southern California in 2012.
With lots of hype assured over the next 21 days, we close the week locally with a short field of five Cal-bred females at a mile on turf in the $70,000 Frans Valentine.
Halo Dolly is the 8-to-5 morning line favorite looking to make amends after disappointing as the chalk in the B. Thoughtful three weeks ago. A winner in 9-of-17 career starts, the 4-year-old daughter of Popular has alternated wins and losses over her last eight races and gets the services of Joel Rosario for the first time today.
The biggest challenge comes from 9-to-5 second choice Sugarinthemorning, who could go off favored dropping out of a trio of Grade I events. The 4-year-old daughter of Candy Ride stretches out for just the second time in her 15th career start and will likely track closely behind Halo Dolly from the opening bell.
After three straight wins to close 2011, Secret Cove has been defeated in all five tries this year, but could pull off the upset as the 4-to-1 fourth choice. The 4-year-old daughter of Tribal Rule adds blinkers for the first time for the red-hot Peter Miller barn and could sit the perfect trip behind the top two.
We’re off to the races!
Pick 4 -
Leg 1 – Race 6 (6) – No. 6 Byrony catches a weak first-level allowance field for her U.S. debut for top connections and can press the pace from the outside early before digging in late to add to her five career wins.
Leg 2 – Race 7 (1,5,6,8,9,10,11) – A high-priced maiden-claimer and we’ll spread seven-deep with No. 1 St. Sincere, No. 5 Guidopanzini, No. 6 Axle, No. 8 Treacherous, No. 9 Willie Brown, No. 10 Oliver’s Tale and No. 11 Hammer the Bay.
Leg 3 – Race 8 (1,3,5) – Use the three listed above with No. 1 Halo Dolly, No. 3 Secret Cove and No. 5 Sugarinthemorning.
Leg 4 – Race 9 (3,4,5,9,10,12) – Bottom-level claimers at seven furlongs to close the week and we spread again with No. 3 Lone Justice, No. 4 Polly’s Dancer, No. 5 Lime Rock Revenge, No. 9 Devils Afleet, No. 10 Vulcan and No. 12 Giant Steps.
Recap – (6) w (1,5,6,8,9,10,11) w (1,3,5) w (3,4,5,9,10,12) – Total cost of ticket = $63
Yesterday’s Result – (+$202.80)
Total for current Hollywood Park spring/summer meet – (-$929.65)
Total from 12/26/10-4/22/12 – (+$588.70)
Pick 5 –
Leg 1 – Race 1 (1,3) –No. 1 Senor Rain is in sharp current form against better than he faces today. His connections are intent on running him on the grass after his last was washed on to the main track, so we’ll trust they’re confident he can take to the green despite getting pulled up in his only previous try over it.
No. 3 Canuletmedowneasy has the only turf form of the group having run no worse than second in three tries over it and can compete with these in his first try with winners.
Leg 2 – Race 2 (4,6,7) – No. 7 Awesome Annie has the major advantage of being the only runner with a race under her belt and it was a solid runner-up effort.
A couple of the others are worth including for trainers that do well first time out so we’ll use No. 4 Jerry’shoneycarol and No. 6 Tilde.
Leg 3 – Race 3 (2,3,4,6) – No. 2 Running Isabella can continue to improve off a win for her new connections, but we’ll spread with No. 3 Tocoi, No. 4 My Diane and No. 6 Warren’s Goldie.
Leg 4 – Race 4 (ALL) – A difficult to decipher $25,000 claiming turf sprint, so we’ll use all six runners.
Leg 5 – Race 5 (6,7) – No. 7 Heartless Honey has speed and moves to Vann Belvoir’s main man Victor Espinoza after coming up a neck short at this level in his last.
We’ll double up with the only first-timer No. 6 Pardon My Excess out of the prolific debut sire In Excess going for Mike Mitchell’s assistant Phillip D’Amato.
Recap – (1,3) w (4,6,7) w (2,3,4,6) w (ALL) w (6,7) – Total cost of ticket = $144
Yesterday’s Result – (-$180)
Total for current Hollywood Park spring/summer meet – (-$327.25)
Total from 7/20/10-4/22/12 (+$2,150.80)
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Good luck!
