Racing at Santa Anita with Marc Doche: Willyconker sitting on win

Each of the eight runners in Thursday’s featured $80,000 allowance optional claimer at a mile on turf has competed in multiple stakes race in their careers, headed by Grade I winner and 5-to-2 morning line favorite Willyconker.

That Grade I triumph for the once $25,000 claimer came in his last try over Santa Anita’s turf course in the Frank Kilroe Mile last March. The six-year-old Irish-bred son of Pyrus makes his third start off the layoff after a pair of third-place finishes at Hollywood Park and gets the services of Martin Pedroza for the first time.

One of a pair listed at 4-to-1, Akkadian also makes his third start off a layoff on the heels of disparate efforts at Hollywood Park. The five-year-old son of Tiznow, who has finished off the board in all five stakes tries, missed by a neck in a money allowance on November 8 before producing the worst effort of his career when getting beat by over 13 lengths a month later.

Also exiting the worst race of his career, Red Sun is the 7-to-2 second choice returning to a course where he’s won 3-of-4 after getting beat by over 16 lengths in the On Trust Handicap at Hollywood Park on November 17. Prior to that, the lightly raced seven-year-old son of Redattore making just his 13^th career start wired the Lure Stakes over this layout on October 28.

Likely keeping Red Sun company on the lead, Hoorayforhollywood is also listed at 4-to-1 making his turf debut with Julien Leparoux in the irons for the first time. The five-year-old son of Storm Cat trained by Bob Baffert has just one win to show for going off favored in his last five races and exits a third-place finish in an ungraded stakes over the dirt at Hoosier Park.

We’re off to the races!

Late Pick 4 -

Leg 1 – Race 5 (ALL) – No. 4 Toomanytomatoes should prove extremely tough on the cut back and No. 10 Belle Passe is a perfect in two tries down the hill, but we find positives in the others runners as well so we’ll use them all.

Leg 2 – Race 6 (1,2,4,5,6) – No. 1 Funny Gal is the top pick looking for her third straight win and owning an over five length score in her only try over this main track, but these young fillies are hard to figure most of the time so we’ll spread with No. 2 Pine Walk, No. 4 Bert’s Altercation, No. 5 Tribal Custom and No. 6 Tribal Gal.

Leg 3 – Race 7 (5,7) – No. 5 Willyconker is sitting on a win and if it’s not him, we No. 7 Akkadian can bounce back with a solid effort from off the pace.

Leg 4 – Race 8 (1,2,6,10,13) – Spread with bottom-level maiden claimers using No. 1 Unusual Darling, No. 2 Mending Wall, No. 6 Lady Shazzam, No. 10 Lady Comic and No. 13 Spacecoast.

Recap – (ALL) w (1,2,4,5,6) w (5,7) w (1,2,6,10,13) – Total cost of ticket = $200

Sunday’s Result – (-$72)

Total for current Santa Anita meet – (+$563.60)

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

Pick 5 –

Leg 1 – Race 1 (2,3) – With long shot stretch out sprinters and No. 2 Greeley Awesome likely to be involved early, No. 3 Tiz a Minister should get the perfect set up stepping out of races where he faced much better.

We’ll double up with Greeley Awesome after he broke his maiden by over nine lengths in his last.

Leg 2 – Race 2 (2,3,5) – No. 3 Magic Mama’s last win came the last time she made her first start off a layoff, when she rallies from last to win going away at this six-furlong distance. She’s run well over dirt and this main track and we might see her price drift up a bit because of the low-percentage connections.

No. 2 Indycat got a confidence boost with a clear win in her last and No. 5 J and S Express won resoundingly the last time making her second start off a layoff.

Leg 3 – Race 3 (3,4,6,7) – Four deep here with Cal-bred maiden allowance runners using No. 3 Parliamentarian, No. 4 Hi Chooch, No. 6 Valley of Kings and No. 7 M Two Forty.

Leg 4 – Race 4 (1,4,5,7) – Another quartet here with hard-knocking claiming sprinters using No. 1 Hard Bill, No. 4 Half Dome Dude, No. 5 Bet On Victor and No. 7 Max Cooper.

Leg 5 – Race 5 (2,4,5,6,10) – Trim down here to No. 2 Song Girl, No. 4 Toomanytomatoes, No. 5 Madoffwiththemoney, No. 6 Blushing Martha and No. 10 Belle Passe.

Recap – (2,3) w (2,3,5) w (3,4,6,7) w (1,4,5,7) w (2,4,5,6,10) – Total cost of ticket = $240

Sunday’s Result – (-$240)

Total for current Santa Anita meet – (+$4,147.35)

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!

Check out my blogs for America’s Best Racing on www.followhorseracing.com!

Listen to my weekly HD Los Angeles sports podcast!

To view my horse racing channel on YouTube click here!

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

Good luck!