Things have not gone to plan for Classical Slew with 14 straight defeats since following up his maiden score by winning the Willard Proctor Memorial Stakes in 2009.
After getting heat for writing in a negative tone a week ago, things get real scary tonight on Friday the 13th with a full dose of bottom-level maiden claiming action and a starter allowance to kick things off with unprecedented conditions and a massive $25,000 purse in a race where none of the runners can win.
This may be the first time we write about the first race on the card, but we can’t pass up such an opportunity when the race is for horses that have started for $10,000 or less at the meet AND have not finished in the money in their last three starts.
The only surprise is that only six of the worst of the worst runners on the grounds could be found to run for more money than they ever will again.
A trio of runners that have run fourth at the meet are likely to get the majority of the wagering action, starting with 8-to-5 favorite Classical Slew, who just missed earning the show against $8,000 claimers when beaten less than two lengths on May 11. The 5-year-old son of Bernstein has since run fifth and sixth at the same level and moves to the barn of Craig Dollase, who is enjoying a solid meet from limited starters.
Wheeling back just a week after getting beat nine lengths when running fourth, Belo Purse is the 9-to-5 second choice for Jack Carava. This also marks the fourth start of the meet for the 8-year-old son of Public Purse, who finished a distant fourth at this level on May 20 before running fifth against $25,000 claimers on June 3.
Hustled to make the race go, Lone Justice is the 5-to-2 third choice for Los Alamitos-based trainer Vod Farris. The 5-year-old son of Roman Ruler makes his third start off the layoff after also running fourth in his last at this level when dueling on the lead under Edwin Maldanado, who opts to climb aboard Classical Slew instead.
Trying to avoid his 30th straight defeat, Raingear is listed at 8-to-1 off sixth and seventh place efforts at the meet. The 7-year-old grey son of Storm Creek also wheels back in a week after finishing just half a length behind Belo Purse.
Rummysecret War leads the field with three wins over this main track, but the last one came nearly two years ago and he enters at 12-to-1 on a 15-race losing streak. After seventh and eighth place local finishes, the 7-year-old son of Sea of Secrets was dropped in for $5,000 in his last start at Los Alamitos on June 2 and ran fifth.
A female taking on the men, 15-to-1 long shot Warren’s Mystery is actually coming off her best performance in quite some time when she not only ran fourth, but was beaten by less than double-digit lengths (9.5) for the first time since a race at Los Alamitos in December of 2010. The 8-year-old daughter of Benchmark has gone off at no less than 26-to-1 in the 12 starts showing in the Daily Racing Form while being more than 50-to-1 on seven occasions.
We’re off to the races!
Pick 4 -
Leg 1 – Race 5 (1,3,4) – With the scratch of No. 2 Floating Feather, it’s a three-horse race between No. 1 Vaderatore, No. 3 Daylight Magic and No. 4 Master Chef.
Leg 2 – Race 6 (4,7) – Along with No. 4 Chocolate Delight, who ran on nicely when going wide last time and should relish this elongated sprint, use No. 7 Tap Tap Ur It, dropping from allowance company with potential speed at this distance.
Leg 3 – Race 7 (1,2,3,6,8) – The feature race slot with Cal-bred females at a mile on turf in a spread race with No. 1 Sweet Baguette, No. 2 Running Isabella, No. 3 Donner Wasser, No. 6 Jewel Seeker and No. 8 Unusual Hottie.
Leg 4 – Race 8 (1,5,6,7,9,11,12) – The top pick should offer a nice price with No. 9 Salon Blonde getting a major barn upgrade and some extremely quick works for Marty Jones. Maybe the meet maiden breaker for Yuichi Fukunaga.
However, we’ll spread with No. 1 Satchmo’s Muse, No. 5 Stupendous Princess, No. 6 Color Girl, No. 7 Warren’s Passion, No. 11 Tiz a Brite Miss and No. 12 Rock U Up.
Recap – (1,3,4) w (4,7) w (1,2,3,6,8) w (1,5,6,7,9,11,12) – Total cost of ticket = $105
Yesterday’s Result – (-$36)
Total for current Hollywood Park spring/summer meet – (-$1,906.55)
Total from 12/26/10 – 4/22/12 – (+$588.70)
Pick 5 –
Leg 1 – Race 1 (1,3,4,5,6) – The female has not shot, but between the other five who knows.
Leg 2 – Race 2 (3,6) – Scratches of a couple key contenders leaves No. 3 Pursuitofparadise a likely short-priced winner alone on the early lead.
If three races in as many weeks is too much for the 2-year-old filly, No. 6 Hyena can win her debut for Pete Miller off solid enough a.m. activity.
Leg 3 – Race 3 (3,4,5) – No. 3 Call Me Jones and No. 4 Secret Spy have had the most success against winners in this non-winners of two lifetime, while No. 6 Above Par moves to his fourth barn for his fifth career start and could pick up the pieces late off his maiden win.
Leg 4 – Race 4 (2,6,10,11) – No. 2 Nifty Dream is the top pick after just getting run down in her last and returning with a trio of solid drills. The light looks to have come on for the 3-year-old daughter of Tribal Rule.
Spread with No. 6 Tiz Final, No. 10 Zenett and No. 11 Tarheel Babe.
Leg 5 – Race 5 (1,3,4) – Same trio as late Pick-4.
Recap – (1,3,4,5,6) w (3,6) w (3,4,5) w (2,6,10,11) w (1,3,4) – Total cost of ticket = $180
Yesterday’s Result – (-$71.75)
Total for current Hollywood Park spring/summer meet – (-$529.90)
Total from 7/20/11 – 4/22/12 – (+$2,150.80)
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.
Make sure to follow me on Twitter @mdoche for last minute changes caused by scratches and much more!
Check out my blogs for America’s Best Racing on www.followhorseracing.com!
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For more Hollywood Park action check out Jarrod Horak’s Pick 6 Blog.
Good luck!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy Friday Marc!!
HAHAHA!!! Didn’t mean to make you feel bad about last week. Like I said many times in the past… I really enjoy reading your posts, and like the local angles you can provide someone like myself on the other side of the country.
That being said, a very interesting post tonight. Being that my offshore account doesn’t take P6 or P5 wagers, the biggest gimmick I play when not at the track is the P4. Therefore, the only race at Hollywood that I have ignored all meet is the first race carded since it isn’t part of the early P4 sequence.
After reading your post, I have to agree with you… that is a condition that would usually be written for Penn National – not Hollywood Park. But if you are the racing secretary, I suppose your job is to write races for horses that are on the back side of the track – and with all the best talent in So. Cal probably already on the trailer headed down The 5 (Correct me if I am wrong… but I think you would take The 5 to get to Del Mar… and if I am right – give me some props because I am from North Carolina) I guess you have to write a race that fits? As you probably can tell by now, I am an optimist when it comes to the game we both love
And perhaps a little too optimistic at times. This week I am with you on this one. Ugly race to kick things off!!! Glad I won’t be playing it. The one good thing to say is… at least it is a good betting race???
One last Friday night at Hollywood Park. Just put my little girl down for the night, so my “capping” for tonight’s card is about to commence. This Hollywood meet hasn’t been good to me at all, but I will give it one last try tonight. Then will shift my sights to Saratoga and Del Mar!!! IMO, the best thing to break out of a cold streak is a change of venue.
Here is my question for you tonight… Iggy Puglisi has killed me all meet. I singled him on a horse at a short price early in the meet and he got taken to school by Bejarano. Ever since then I have bet against him, and all Iggy has done is win at a Bejarano like 26% clip!!! It sure seems like Iggy does most of his best riding in prime time under the lights as well.
Tonight he is on 3 live mounts for Aguirre. I know you included him on your ticket in 4th race (and guess I have to play that horse for my wife because of the horse’s name – go ahead – insert your insult here. lol ) But do you think it is really safe to leave him off in the other races tonight?
As always… keep up the great work!
What up Mr. Cheese!
You weren’t the only one to give me heat, but it’s all good. I would suggest you play the ponies through Twinspires. It’s a whole different experience and you can bet into the track pools with no worries about max payoffs or getting paid. Plus the Pick 5 is the best bet at the track.
I agree racing secretaries need to card races based on the stock on the back side, but in this case it’s really perplexing because Warren’s Mystery definitely doesn’t belong and I know for a fact Lone Justice was hustled to make the race go. Very strange, especially with this kind of purse for horses that don’t deserve to be running for it.
You do need to take the 5 to get to Del Mar, but technically from Hollywood Park you have to take the 405 until it hits the 5. Nice job Mr. Tar Heel and betting on names is all good, especially if you want to make the wife happy.
As far as Iggy’s other mounts, Malibu Love is no good. She’s been in some of the worst route races for bottom-level claiming females. I would be surprised if she’s close. I considered using You Little Devil, but maiden breakers jumping into winners is always dicey and that heat was no good either. Three Buttons Down came back to get beat pretty soundly.
Good luck and let’s get lucky tonight.
LOL… the Mr. is nice and a sign of respect if you were raised here in the south – but I hope you think of me as a friend at this point Marc. So please… call me Cheese – as most of my longtime friends do.
Twinspires would be ideal – but as you know… I live in NC. BIBLE BELT!!! Honestly… we just got the lottery here about 5 years ago. Before that – there wasn’t any type of gambling allowed in NC. Not even old people playing Bingo!!! So I am not allowed to sign up for Twinspires, or any Account Wagering Service as long as I have an NC address. I even signed up for a TVG account a few months back using my best friends Indiana address, but after a few deposits, they could tell my bank account was located in NC, so I got a nasty gram from them terminating my account. Drive me nuts knowing that if I resided less than 70 miles north, I would be in Virginia where signing up for accounts like Twinspires would be 100% legal. Thus… I have no option but to play offshore.
I know this isn’t really the forum to talk about politics, but I am totally against any state law that takes away personal freedoms. If I want to burn my hard earned paycheck on ponies, where does some politician get off telling me that it is immoral for me to do it? But I digress.
Let’s have some fun tonight… and pick some winners!!!
Cool. I have another friend named Cheese as well. His first name is Chesed.
Forgot about those laws. I agree with your political stance. Time to move!
Wait a minute – his mother named him Chesed??? That is AWESOME!!! Just remember… I am “The Real Cheeseman”
I agree, but I married a Tar Hole – err Tar Heel… that refuses to move more than 100 miles away from her god loving – conservative parents, and I landed a solid job that provides me with a disposable income that makes nights like this possible for me. So I think that for better or worse, I’m stuck in NC. Could be worse I guess. If I ever start smoking, I guess I can get discount prices on cigarettes… and can’t forget about those great fireworks I can purchase
Looks like you have nice coverage with the P5. Well done. I covered all of the ones you laid out in 4th race with exception of the winner… couldn’t back winless trainer with jock that was 2% coming in. That kind of meet for me. Ahhhhh.
One less from cheap races. Last race top Beyer is a must use.
lesson
Well done… you can exhale now – Gomez was closing like a rocket!
$547! Well done sir
I get what you are saying about the drop – but the winner in the 4th has run twice at the level in the past – and was beat 28 3/4 and 10 1/2 respectively. I totally agree on the best beyer out of last race angle. If I ever go against that angle, I have to have a good reason… and as I stated above – Jockey and trainer ice cold, plus has already not done well in past at the level. But at the end of the day – you are correct. Lesson learned for me.
Yikes. I got lucky. I wanted to use Memphis too, but just thought he was too slow.
Ahhhhh…. almost got “Iggyed” again. Maybe… just maybe… I could find a winner tonight. I’ve been down this road recently however, and if recent history is a guide – well
Marc… this is your queue to remind me that I have always been an external optimist. LOL.
The problem with my late P4 is that I went 5 deep in that leg on my main ticket. I left the 4 off my back up in favor of Rahy’s and Eurton’s horse. Oh well. The positive is that I singled the 4 in my late P3, and have good 3×4 coverage in the last legs. I’ve invested $74 total tonight. Breaking even tonight will be a positive that I can build on at this point.
…Or internal optimist. Or both… whatever. I have 3,8/6,9 covered in P4, and 2,3,8/6,9,11,12 in P3 covered. Can I hit something here???
Sure. If Salon Blonde wins should be decent. Good luck.
Wish I had covered more in the night cap. These cheap mdc 18-20 are such scrambles. There were three tonight… the first one in the 4th race knocked me out of the early P4, the second one in the 6th I hit on 2/3 tickets, but I had to go deep to get the 2/1 fav. Just don’t have a good feeling. Change of venue needed ASAP for the Cheese.
Well… I cashed a ticket. $23.10 on a $12 investment – but whatever. I have to take that as a positive and put this damn Hollywood meet behind me. On to Del Mar!!! On to SARATOGA!!!
Turn this damn place into a strip mall by the airport!!!!
Honestly… Love night racing. Just a bad string of luck for me. A change of venue will hopefully pick me up.
Look forward to having a conversation about the late Friday P4 next week at Del Mar!!!
Sounds good. Have a nice rest of your weekend.