I got lucky yesterday when even though 2/5 shot Call Provision won the 8th race, I managed to hook him up with some better priced horses in the P3 and P4 . Sky Chaparral paid $11.40 in the 7th, Free N Clear pulled a mild upset in the 9th at $19.60, and Light the Night came back at $15.80 in the 10th. I’m not sure it was a brilliant bet, but given how tough it was finding value, and two days of looking to make some sort of a move, plus deciding Call Provision was all but a lock, using some of the better priced contenders in the P3 and P4 at least satisfied the itch. The P3’s around the 5 paid $52.50, $144.50 and a healthy $346.50, while the P4 paid $1,654.

Today has a similar feel to it, with a number of races having similar looking contenders, and not many races having a stickout value horse. Here are some thoughts on the day.

Race 1 starts off with four of the horses looking like legitimate contenders. Undertherain has been knocking around at this level for a while. Her last race was probably the most impressive in a while, but I’m not impressed about her going favorite in this spot. Stormin Saratoga might wind up being the value horse in here. Javier Castellano is back in the saddle looking to duplicate his win from two months ago, and she puts the blinkers on for this trip. She might be my value horse today. Sweet Ella just broke her maiden for Pletcher, and if there is a strategic angle it is that Johnny V took the mount on this one when he may have had his choice between her and the horses above. The other horse that interests me is Eqho. Linda Rice just claimed the horse and wheels him back at the same price. Perhaps we have some  wishful thinking on her part, but I have a suspicion with a clean trip she’s a main contender.

Race 2 looks like Nuffsaid Nuffsaid will be the horse that gets the majority of the betting money. However, there are a lot of prospects for beating the horse, including Silver Slience, Valkimqua, Two Step Flor and Chickaletta. From my perspective it might be worth going deep.

Race 3 is another competitive affair. I’m looking at Lyrical Moment will get plenty of support because he is Pletcher/Velasquez. Same concept for My Fair Lily who goes for Brown and Castellano. The interesting horse may be Joannie who has one start for Bill Mott. Mott does not often bring horses to the track ready to give their best effort first out, but this one didn’t look bad in a decent maiden field. A couple of good works since make her my likely choice. Fired Up Sensation looked good dropping down to MCL, and bounces back up today.  Finally, Athena’s Aegis fits well in this group and Tom Morley is having a pretty good meet early on. She gets first Lasix after a couple of nice starts.

Not much insight in Races 4 and 5. Sophia’s Song will get a lot of action in the fourth and does look good. In the 5th, Jumby Bay goes for Pletcher/Velasquez, Victory to Victory is the good looking Mark Casse entrant, and Zero Zee goes for the solid George Weaver. For a longshot I’m looking at Irish Fix. 

The last four races are a bounty of contenders, and as I get closer to post time I’ll look at cutting down the possibilities, but these are the contenders as I see them. My late Pick 4 currently looks like this.

Race 7  –  3, 7 primary, 1, 2, 5, 8 secondary

Race 8  –  4, 8 primary, 5 secondary

Race 9  –  2, 7, 10, 11 primary

Race 10  –  2, 3, 11 primary, 7, 10 secondary