Like the Who said, it’s another tricky day. Lots of racing competitive because of the talent or lack thereof.

Race 1     4-1-2

Race 2     5-2-3-6

Race 3     3-12-11-7

Race 4     5-8-4-6

Race 5     4-2-9

Race 6     2-1-9-8

Race 7     7-3-9-11

Race 8     (in-depth analysis race of the day)     4-8-1-3

• 1 Rock Me Mama – Was claimed by Richard Metivier for $25K. He promptly jumped her up to $50K on the turf, a surface on which she has shown little talent. He then moved her to s 6F starter allowance on the dirt. In that contest she bobbled at the start and never got into the race. She’s not terribly misplaced in the ALW NW1X but she is 0 for 2 on the BEL dirt. I give her an outside chance here.
• 2 Malibu Queeen – scratched
• 3 Pebble Beach Baby – an interesting horse for high percentage trainer Ramon Preciado. She comes off a win at Parx in a $16K starter. She’s been well traveled, with races at SA, GG, OTP, and DMR as well as Parx with pretty fair success. She doesn’t have the pace figures of some in here, but she is very consistent. If she takes to the BEL surface, she could run to her 2-1 ML odds.
• 4 Whispering – 3 year old filly broke her maiden early in the year at GP on the turf. While her three dirt starts haven’t resulted in a placing, her last race was a lot better than looked. The field that day was better than this field. The place and show horses both came back in their next out to win NW1X allowance races. At 6-1 on the ML she represents good value.
• 5 Holiday’s Jewel – hasn’t showed much in her last three races; in fact, hasn’t shown a lot this year. A non-contender for me.
• 6 Streethomealabama – Most recently has been racing in Kentucky. Was claimed out of her last race by low profile trainer William Heffner. She has only one win in 14 starts, but 8 seconds and thirds. At best, she gets a minor piece.
• 7 Penthouse Party – claimed from her last by Oscar Barrera III. She hasn’t been fast enough lately, but does have a lot of tactical speed. While I’m not leaning in her direction, if she guns from the get-go she may have something to say at the end.
• 8 Madaket Millie – ML favorite for Chad Brown, has not run at the sprint distance in her career. She finished within half a length of a strong allowance field at SAR but has tailed off in her last two. Two weeks ago at BEL she showed her normal early foot, but faded in the stretch. Still, no horse was beating Snowbell that day and she did run well enough on the dirt to get Brown to send her out for another try at a shorter distance.  Has a lot of upside, but definitely doesn’t look unbeatable.

Race 9     6-10-5-11