Santa Anita Park is a fantastic place to spend St. Patrick’s Day! Where else in Southern California and you spend a Friday afternoon having a few beers and watching the ponies with the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop?
First things first; It’s St Patrick’s Day; Everyone wants to bet on an Irish horse and here are 2 reasons to bet Irish horses or Irish names today at Santa Anita Park.
Race 7 Barton Lodge. First time gelding for this four-year old Irish bred, and the gelding was back in August, which I like to see. I don’t like betting on first time geldings when they have only been gelded a few weeks before. It takes at least a month in my opinion to get the testosterone out of the system and have a horse who is concentrating on his work. Major drop in class for this guy today in this difficult race at Santa Anita Park.
Race 8 Irish Dame. The Prat effect on a Paddy O Prado filly? Yes please! I’ll take it t 4-1 in a wide open race for 30,000 cleaners.
Today’s Friday card opens with an optional claimed on our downhill turf course. These down hill sprints are always fun races and it’s really hard to play against Peter Miller who is red-hot and Norberto Arroyo on Stormy Rocit. This gelding had his last two races on the turf and was second with a solid number (94) in that race and check out the third place horse a length behind him in there; Denman’s Call, winner of the Grade 1 Triple Bend last Saturday. I like this Stormy Atlantic gelding in this spot for a few reasons. One other one being if you check out the last turf start he was 5th but only by 1 and a half lengths and that was after missing the break. I’m going to throw Americanize onto my Pick 5 ticket here too, since his numbers beat these but he has never been on the turf. (And the connections are not well know for turfers)
Race two is a fairly terrible bottom level maiden claimer. I will go three deep and throw a crazy long shot onto my superfecta ticket. The 7, Only in the Movies seems the type to win only in the movies but the workouts at Los Alamitos across town are actually decent! She is showing a little speed in the mornings, maybe this four year old mare can get it together for third or fourth?
Race three is where I find my single, 2-1 on Broadway Nika and she will probably get bet down. Well rested and Spawr barn is read hot right now. Lets hope she runs back to that 11 length romp two back.
Race four is wide open and I would go as deep as you can afford but to kept costs down I will use just three in here. Tuscany Beauty is my very tepid top choice. Hopefully Roman can get her straight to the lead carrying way less weight and she can hold on in the stretch.
Race five closes out our Pick 5 with our second turf race of the day. I went deep in here with a wide open field. Go as deep as you afford in this one. Tribal Fighter drops in class and had trouble down the hill in his last. Picks up Nakatami and hopes for smoother sailing today. Has been in the money last 6 of 8 and half of those were much tougher races. I’ll also use Indavidualist who is lightly raced for a solid barn. Great numbers in all four starts. Was right behind Denman’s call in last and that one won a Grade 1 race on Saturday. I’ll throw in the Ellis and Miller horses on the outside, mainly because both stables are very consistent and both have shown decent numbers that fi with these in the past.
The Pick 4 is a wide open horizontal affair today. I would suggest going as deep as you can in each leg. I went with a $60 ticket but would have loved to go deeper in a few of these. In the second leg if you want to go cheaper than $60, I suggest just using the 1,3,5.
Good luck today and have a great St Patrick’s Day at Santa Anita Park!
Santa Anita Park Pick 5
1. 1, 8 Trifecta wheel 1/2,4,6,7/2,4,6,7. $12
2.1,2,6. superfecta box 1,2,6,7
3.6
4.3,6,7
5.5,6,7,8. Superfecta wheel 5,6,8/1.5,6,8/1,2,5.6,7,8/1,2,5,6,7,8. $10.80
$36 ticket
Santa Anita Park Pick 4
1.5,6,7,8
2.1,2,3,4,5
3.2,3,10
4.3,5. $60
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