Racing at Santa Anita with Marc Doche: Short allowance field outside carryover Pick-6

A two-day racing break is plenty of time for bettors to pick the cash trees and pour money into a Pick-6 carryover of $113,777 that could lead to a pool that approaches $1 million. However, with just a quartet of four-year-old fillies going to post in the featured second-level allowance sprinting 6 ½-furlongs on the main track with a purse of $60,000, that heat goes as the second race and is outside the Pick-6 sequence.

Exiting a fourth-place finish in the Santa Monica Stakes (Grade 2) on January 26, Distracting is the prohibitive 3-to-5 morning line favorite for leading trainer Bob Baffert and leading rider Rafael Bejarano. After a pair of wins to begin her career, the daughter of Distorted Humor has lost three straight, but with the blinkers coming back on could find herself alone on the lead after the scratch of long shot Dypsy.

With a pair of wins and a runner-up effort, 5-to-2 second choice Quizzical has done nothing wrong in three tries over Santa Anita’s main track. From modest beginnings as a Washington-bred daughter of Cindago, she can eclipse $150,000 in earnings today in just her tenth career start.

Candy and Thunder is a threat from off the pace at 9-to-2 having finished in the money in 12-of-21 starts and 8-to-1 long shot Belloma was sharp in a five-furlong spin on February 16 after her first race in eight months and will try to improve in the second off a layoff for the first time in her career.

We’re off to the races!

Late Pick 4 -

Leg 1 – Race 5 (1,3,5,6,9) – Highly regarded when making his debut here in November after missing by just a nose in a Group 3 in France at this 1 ¼-miles distance, No. 5 Saint Loup was compromised by a bad trip and did well to be beaten less than three lengths against tougher than he faces today. He’s been training a hole in the wind since for cagey Julio Canani, who turns to Martin Pedroza trying to improve on their 40% strike rate together at The Great Race Place.

He can be a Pick-6 single and a superfecta key, but we’ll cover ourselves in the connector leg of the Pick-4 and Pick-5 by spreading with No. 1 McAllister Boys, No. 3 Toruk Makto, No. 6 Bright Thought and No. 9 Vibrato Jazz.

Leg 2 – Race 6 (1,3,5) – No. 5 Royal Tiger is another potential Pick-6 single having faced much tougher than these throughout her career, but a kooky owner that keeps changing barns is uninspiring so we’ll add run away maiden winners No. 1 Spacecoast and No. 3 Warren’s Gussie.

Leg 3 – Race 7 (1,4,5) – Along with top two betting choices No. 4 Square Dancer and No. 5 I Don’t Care Who, add the longer of the Carl O’Callaghan prices with No. 1 Aerial Artist, who had a rough trip in his last at Turf Paradise and was competitive against maiden allowance runners coming down the hill in October.

Leg 4 – Race 8 (5,7,9,10,11) – If you’re looking to close with a single, No. 7 Banged His Eye is a good option retaining the services of Garrett Gomez after flashing speed against allowance runners in his debut.

For Pick-4 purposes, we spread at the bottom of the maiden claiming ranks with No. 5 Green Team, No. 9 Hi Chooch, No. 10 Karaiskakis and No. 11 Three Buttons Down.

Recap – (1,3,5,6,9) w (1,3,5) w (1,4,5) w (5,7,9,10,11) – Total cost of ticket = $112.50

Monday’s Result – (-$105)

Total for current Santa Anita meet – (+$839.60)

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

Pick 5 –

Leg 1 – Race 1 (1,3) – No. 3 Russdiculous towers over this bunch on the drop from maiden allowance heats, but he’ll be a microscopic price so let’s take a flier on No. 1 Mars Curiosity, who was eased in his debut a month ago, but fetched $32,000 at auction and might have some ability.

Leg 2 – Race 2 (1,2,4) – We’ll take a couple shots at beating odds-on favorite No. 2 Distracting with No.1  Candy and Thunder and No. 4 Quizzical.

Leg 3 – Race 3 (3,5,7,8,9) – Down the hill with Cal-bred maiden allowance runners and we’ll spread with No. 3 Empty Headed, No. 5 L’Dor Vador, No. 7 Celebrity Status, No. 8 Kilat and No. 9 Troy Story.

Leg 4 – Race 4 (5,6) – No. 6 Tribal Spy exits a couple of key races and the move to Edwin Maldonado should suit her well, but an out of the ordinary for her brutally slow five-furlong work a week ago raises a bit of a red flag so we’ll double up with No. 5 Southern Journey making her debut with Bejarano aboard.

Leg 5 – Race 5 (1,3,5,6,9) – Same five as the late Pick-4.

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

Monday’s Result – (+$277.90)

Total for current Santa Anita meet – (+$2,614.40)

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.

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

Good luck!