I’m investing in a dart board. Why? Glad you asked: today is one of those cards where I want to put the Form up on a wall and simply throw darts at it to pick my plays. It’s one of the tougher cards I’ve ever seen and yesterday’s shutout of favorites has me a little freaked to single anyone who seems to be a lock.
With that said, here’s my stab at what’s going to happen…
Juvenile Turf: I personally am not an 11-Interactif fan, so I would totally rather look at Kenny McPeek’s charge 7-Bridgetown, but I’m going the Euro route with 4-Pounced because his Sheet numbers put him square in the mix and John Gosden doesn’t ship unless he’s got talent
Turf Sprint: I want to see a filly sweep on boy’s day, so I gotta root for a 9-Diamondrella over 7-Gotta Have Her exacta, but John Sadler thinks his best shot of the weekend is 1-Noble Court and that’s lofty enough praise for me
Sprint: we may be in for a broken track record with the ridiculous speed duel that’s going to take place here and 1-Zensational doesn’t break clean so will probably not be a part of it and wants no part of closing so he’s a totally beatable favorite; 5-Gayego is the non-route buzz horse of the week, but my gut says 8-Capt. Candyman Can closes like a freight train and gets the glory
Juvenile: with 13-Lookin At Lucky drawing the far outside Lucky 13 post, this goes one of two ways for me, as I see either 5-D’Funnybone stealing it on the lead (if his record & Sheet numbers hold and he keeps incrementally stepping up, then he’s going to be tough to beat); otherwise 9-Aikenite (the only horse I wanted to buy from the sales all season and my biggest buzz horse of the year so far) closes into the pace and gets the win for Dogwood
Mile: the start of the DartBoardPick4 here begins with crushing my big Keeneland play last out 5-Karelian, but it’s all 11-Goldikova here (I don’t care about the outside post when you have such a freakily talented horse) with 8-Zacinto and 7-Fernely behind her; quick shoutout to the jockey of 9-Gladiatorus, who’s Facebook page is truly fun to follow
Dirt Mile: a good friend who’s handicapping I trust implicitly says that 1-Mastercraftsman is the bullgoose of the week (strutting around like he owns the joint), so I gotta heart that; and I’m looking for a price underneath from either 4-Bullsbay or 7-Pyro
Turf: 2-Conduit was my play of last year and I still love him, so for the exotics I’m thinking the filly 5-Dar Re Mi completes a Euro exacta and the (banned in the UK because he can’t load into a gate) 7-Spanish Moon gives us the imported trifecta
Classic: what a race to end with! I truly believe that 4-Zenyatta gets the win (distance and other horses going with her won’t be a factor – she’s as bigger freak than Goldikova); 2-Colonel John is as consistent as they come & absolutely loves synthetics/Santa Anita so he’s gotta be on the ticket, and I round out insanity with either 8-Einstein (gotta root for the hardest working horse in showbiz – he gives 110% every single time) or 10-Rip Van Winkle (the supposed feet issues don’t scare me)
As a sidenote to the Classic, please do not get me started on the ridiculousness of 7-Gio Ponti and 12-Quality Road … the former is an utter grass horse who could trounce the now 7 horse field in the Turf even though it’s not at his preferred distance; the latter should be in the Dirt Mile because – as I’ve said time and time again – he doesn’t want to go too much further than 8 furlongs.
