Happy Easter!
Like many of the party-goers in the turf club after yesterday’s Santa Anita Derby Day festivities, Easter Sunday racing experiences a hang over with short fields lacking quality throughout an abbreviated eight-race weekend card, including in the feature down the hillside turf course where just five first-level allowance Cal-bred females compete for $58,000.
Mission accomplished for Marty Jones if he was in search of the best spot for 9-to-5 favorite Starry Skies to make her second career start after she was scratched twice in the last week. The three-year-old daughter of Sky Mesa was steadied at the start in her debut over this layout on March 2 before wheeling six-wide to win going away by a length over next out winner Best Present Ever.
Darling Dodie is the second choice after notching an impressive debut score of her own coming down the hill on March 2, cruising home by over four lengths in a time a couple of ticks slower than Starry Skies. With Corey Nakatani out of town, Garrett Gomez picks up the mount on the three-year-old daughter of Good Journey.
Having substantially more experience against tougher competition and likely more early speed, Suances Flower can get the job done as the third choice in her third straight try down the hill. The five-year-old daughter of Suances was game in defeat two races back when Sean S beat her by half a length and she returned to finish fourth on March 9 when she couldn’t get to the early lead.
We’re off to the races!
Pick 4 -
Leg 1 – Race 5 (3,5,6,7,8) – Spread five deep with No. 3 Somethingabouterri, No. 5 Vikkilee, No. 6 Tripped the Light, No. 7 Roman Chic and No. 8 Mo Cheese in this starter allowance with runners that are not used to being not offered for a tag.
Leg 2 – Race 6 (3,5,7,10) – No. 3 Warrens Venedalucy wins if she runs back to her last, but at short odds and not having strung together good efforts through four starts, we’ll also use No. 5 Wild Bella, No. 7 Heart of a Madam and No. 10 Chimi Dee.
Leg 3 – Race 7 (2,3,4) – Use the trio listed above with No. 2 Starry Skies, No. 3 Darling Dodie and No. 4 Suances Flower.
Leg 4 – Race 8 (2,3,4,9) – No. 4 Iron Joe T plummets to the bottom after actually getting a better trip than it appears on paper last time, so we’ll spread with No. 2 P Thirty Eight, No. 3 Skully Gully and No. 9 Ferveo.
Recap – (3,5,6,7,8) w (3,5,7,10) w (2,3,4) w (2,3,4,9) – Total cost of ticket = $120
Yesterday’s Result – (-$144)
Total for current Santa Anita winter/spring meet – (-$2,523)
Total from 12/26/10-12/18/11 – (+$3,512.05)
Pick 5 –
Leg 1 – Race 1 (5) – The drop is rather alarming, but even with three sound legs No. 5 Forest Souvenir should be a lay-up at extremely short odds to start the day.
Leg 2 – Race 2 (ALL) – A surprisingly solid group of $12,500 claimers that have combined for 23 wins so we’ll use all six of them.
Leg 3 – Race 3 (4,7) – No. 4 Baby Blake sheds the blinkers for his second try going long after just getting nailed last time and No. 7 Confucius Junior could be rounding into his best form as Garrett Gomez takes over for the first time.
Leg 4 – Race 4 (2,4,5) – No. 2 Spicy Beau has won both of his routes on dirt, No. 4 Laser Point stretches out after blitzing sprinters in his last, and No. 5 Formula Gold is well-meant on the ship from Golden Gate.
Leg 5 – Race 5 (3,5,6,7,8) – Same five as the late Pick-4.
Recap – (5) w (ALL) w (4,7) w (2,4,5) w (3,5,6,7,8) – Total cost of ticket = $90
Yesterday’s Result – (-$128)
Total for current Santa Anita winter/spring meet – (-$2,675.65)
Total from 7/20/10-12/18/11 (+$1,513.90)
Best Bet of the Day (ROI based off $2 WPS bet)
Race 3 – #7 Confucius Junior (4/1 ML) – Blinkers on this son of Kitten’s Joy, who gets a turf route for just the second time and has shown the ability to lay closer than he did last time.
Yesterday’s Result – Off the board with Hasty Trend (-$6.00)
Total for current Santa Anita winter/spring meet – (-$124)
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Good luck!
