Racing at Santa Anita with Marc Doche: Road tripping to El Paso

Late to post with an abbreviated version after just touching down in El Paso to cover tomorrow’s Sun Bowl for Sports USA Radio.

With a free afternoon ahead, a stop at Sunland Park is on the agenda where their feature for quarter horses is the $350,000 Championship at Sunland Park (Grade 1).

The wet weather is gone at Santa Anita, but the cold temps remain and have prevented the turf course from completely drying out.

The downhill turf course is still closed for action, but the featured $150,000 Robert J. Frankel (G3) for fillies and mares three and up remains on the turf over 1 1/8-miles.

We’re off to the races!

Late Pick 4 -

Leg 1 – Race 6 (1,2,4,6,7) – Use the five runners that own wins over this main track with No. 1 Tiz Dynamic, No. 2 Won Won Oh Five, No. 4 Just Tripping, No. 6 Showmethemoneyjim and No. 7 Generations.

Leg 2 – Race 7 (3,4,6,8) – No. 3 Arresting Officer hasn’t had much luck on dirt and seems to be going the wrong way, but is dangerous as potential line speed.

No. 4 Secret Jackpot could sit the perfect stalking trip and ships south in sharp form.

Also use No. 6 Big Bad Brown, No. 8 Chinese Praise.

Leg 3 – Race 8 (2,3,9) – A trio of quality turfers in the Frankel with No. 2 Halo Dolly, No. 3 Qaraaba and No. 9 Tiz Flirtatious.

Leg 4 – Race 9 (4,5,7,8,9) – Close with the customary maiden claimers using No. 4 Shame On Alex, No. 5 Unmarked Bills, No. 7 Hold’em Hustler, No. 8 Mind the Master and No. 9 Tassano.

Recap – (1,2,4,6,7) w (3,4,6,8) w (2,3,9) w (4,5,7,8,9) – Total cost of ticket = $150

Yesterday’s Result – (-$150)

Total for current Santa Anita meet – (+$446.10)

Total from 12/26/10 – 12/16/12 – (-$2,090.45)

Pick 5 –

Leg 1 – Race 1 (ALL) – No. 8 Zoe B is the only runner we can’t see winning, but we won’t just leave her off and punch the all button.

Leg 2 – Race 2 (2,5) – No. 5 Maker or Breaker is one of our favorites after closing a $17k Pick-5 score in her debut at Del Mar this summer and she’s turning into the top-level runner her breeding suggested she would.

No. 2 Ricspretentiousgal is honest as well so we’ll include her in this depleted field of just three.

Leg 3 – Race 3 (3,5) – Another short-priced Bob Baffert here with debuting No. 3 Humor Me and another double up with No. 5 Blushing Angel having shown the  most talent of the experienced runners.

Leg 4 – Race 4 (2,8,11) – No. 8 Missdealornodeal enters off four straight runner-up finishes in solid heats and can fire fresh off the brief respite. She could be controlling speed and will be tough to run down in this sprint moved on to the main track.

No. 2 Schiaparelli has loads of talent but is a question mark and the dirt and No. 11 Gem of Soul won her only start on the dirt.

Leg 5 – Race 5 (2,4,6,8) – Spread with bottom-level juvenile maiden claimers over a mile with No. 2 Trice Up, No. 4 Bugsy Lotsy, No. 6 Bro Derek, No. 8 Louisthefifteenth.

Recap – (ALL) w (2,5) w (3,5) w (2,8,11) w (2,4,6,8) – Total cost of ticket = $192

Yesterday’s Result – (+$4,109.30)

Total for current Santa Anita meet – (+$4,705.35)

Total from 7/20/11 – 12/16/12 – (+$13,891.70)

Best Bet of the Day – Can now be found in the Pros Picks section at www.santaanita.com.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter @mdoche for last minute changes caused by scratches and much more!

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For more Santa Anita action check out Jarrod Horak’s Pick 6 Blog.

Good luck!