America’s Best Racing and handicapper (and avid gambler) Monique Vág team up to provide horseplayers with their best bets of the weekend. Vág will identify her top picks as well as at least one longshot play of the weekend, a nice opportunity to swing for the fences on a win bet or to take a shot with a show bet. She also will occasionally look for strong exacta plays for the weekend or try to spot a nice opportunity for other wagers. This Weekend’s Bets
Tag: Horse racing news
Stronach 5: Three Different Tracks Highlighted In Friday Wager
Five competitive races from Laurel Park, Gulfstream Park West and Golden Gate Fields, including two maiden events, highlight Friday's Stronach 5.
The popular Stronach 5, with an industry-low 12-percent takeout, begins with a scheduled turf event at Laurel Park at 3:28 p.m. Three-year-old maidens take to the turf in Gulfstream West's eighth race, the second leg of the sequence. The third leg, Laurel's eighth race, is an allowance event at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds and up. The field of 11 is wide-open with the 7-2 morning-line favorite Moose Lodge, a son of Munnings making his third start. The Ben Perkins-trained colt broke his maiden at first asking at Monmouth Park Aug. 2 before finishing third in an allowance optional claimer Sept. 26 at Monmouth.
Laurel's ninth race, the fourth leg in the sequence, features 2-year-old maidens for a $40,000 tag. The field includes Big Cypress, making his debut for St. Elias Stable and ARM Racing LLC, Colts Neck Stables LLC's Stimulus Maker, McCarthy Racing's Doubleoseven, and BTR Racing, Inc. and Dark Horse Racing LLC's Hello Hot Rod.
The Stronach 5 concludes with nine filly and mare claimers going six furlongs at Golden Gate. Tippy Top is the 5-2 favorite dropping in from allowance company.
Friday's races and sequence
· Leg One – Laurel Park 7th Race: (10 entries, 5 ½ furlongs turf) 3:28 ET, 12:28 PT
· Leg Two –Gulfstream West 8th Race: (10 entries, 1 1/16 mile turf) 3:41 ET, 3:41 PT
· Leg Three –Laurel Park 8th Race (11 entries, 7 furlongs) 4 ET, 1 PT
· Leg Four –Laurel Park 9th Race: (8 entries, 6 furlongs) 5:08 ET, 2:08 PT
· Leg Five –Golden Gate Fields 3rd Race: (9 entries, 6 furlongs) 5:15 ET, 2:15 PT
Fans can watch and wager on the action at 1/ST.COM/BET as well as stream all the action in English and Spanish at LaurelPark.com, SantaAnita.com, GulfstreamPark.com, and GoldenGateFields.com.
The Stronach 5 In the Money podcast, hosted by Jonathan Kinchen and Peter Thomas Fornatale, will be posted by 2 p.m. Thursday at InTheMoneyPodcast.com and will be available on iTunes and other major podcast distributors
The minimum wager on the multi-race, multi-track Stronach 5 is $1. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.
If a change in racing surface is made after the wagering closes, each selection on any ticket will be considered a winning selection. If a betting interest is scratched, that selection will be substituted with the favorite in the win pool when wagering closes.
The Maryland Jockey Club serves as host of the Stronach 5.
The post Stronach 5: Three Different Tracks Highlighted In Friday Wager appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Andy Beyer Joins TDN Writers’ Room
As the Breeders’ Cup draws nearer, legendary author, columnist, figuremaker and handicapper Andy Beyer joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland this week. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Beyer discussed the future of playing the horses, what his action looks like these days and the evolution of speed figures over the years.
Asked about his early Breeders’ Cup opinions, Beyer understandably said he’s against the strong on hype, weak on numbers Princess Noor (Not This Time), who figures to be among the favorites in the Juvenile Fillies.
“The commentators on TV were just riding the Beyer Speed Figures, like, ‘How can this great horse only be getting figures in the 70’s?'” he said. “Todd Schrupp on TVG mentioned her in the same breath with Ruffian, which to me is sacrilege. But the fact is when I look at all of her races, the figures are solid as a rock. When she won her last race [the Chandelier] at Santa Anita, there was a really weak group of male 2-year-olds [in that day’s GI American Pharoah S.] going the same distance. You have a direct line of comparison and her time was just very mediocre, as with her other races, so I always believed in standing by right figures when I can and I’ll be betting against her in the Breeders’ Cup.”
On how his betting habits compare to a younger version of himself, Beyer said, “I bet much less. When I developed the figures I was just about the only person who had speed figures. I had as great an edge as a gambler could want from the mid-70s to the mid-90s. Now that speed figures are common currency and everybody has access to them, I don’t have that. I made hay while the sun shined, in those golden years. Plus there are elements of the modern game that I just don’t like. At the top of the list is the Rainbow 6 and those other copycat jackpot bets. There was nothing that got my juices flowing like a big carryover in a traditional Pick 6. But the jackpot bets are, to me, a sucker bet to fleece the average player. So I’m down on that.”
A longtime critic of drugs in racing and the lax regulatory approach that allows cheaters to prosper, Beyer admitted that he didn’t realize the depths of the alleged criminality that were revealed in this March’s FBI indictments of Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro.
“In all the years that I would write about super-trainers and guys whose performance seemed to defy logic, I had the notion that, the industry is just looking the other way, stewards aren’t cracking down,” he said. “We learned from the case earlier this year that it’s not as simple as that. This was a major criminal conspiracy, with people manufacturing sophisticated drugs, hiding the presence of those drugs in a sophisticated way. It took a year-long investigation by the FBI with wiretaps to nail the cheaters. This was not just a sneaky trainer and a sneaky vet, it was something that needed a major law enforcement effort. So I think the only answer to this problem is to bring in high-powered investigators. Within the industry itself, it wasn’t negligence, we just didn’t have the tools to keep the cheaters at bay.”
Elsewhere on the show, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the writers discussed the recent string of medication positives coming out of the Bob Baffert barn and what they mean, then gave their first-blush impressions of the Breeders’ Cup pre-entries. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.
The post Andy Beyer Joins TDN Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Notable US-Bred & -Sired Runners in Japan: Oct. 31, 2020
In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Saturday running at Kyoto and Tokyo Racecourses. Former Horse of the Year Almond Eye (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) makes her first start since June in defense of her title in the G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn), a race connections will use as a springboard to potential targets at home and/or abroad over the next six weeks:
Saturday, October 31, 2020
5th-KYO, ¥13,400,000 ($128k), Newcomers, 2yo, 2000mT
VICTORION (JPN) (c, 2, Uncle Mo–Easter Island, by Giant’s Causeway) is the first foal for his dam, an unraced daughter of GISW Awesome Maria (Maria’s Mon), who was purchased for $350K carrying this foal in utero at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale. Victorion, whose female family includes Grade I winners Discreet Cat and Discreetly Mine, was purchased for ¥20 million ($180,400) as a foal at th 2018 JRHA Select Sale and his yearling half-sister by successful young sire Duramente (Jpn) made ¥22 million ($206,785) at the Hokkaido Summer Yearling Sale this past August. Easter Island also has a weanling colt by Orfevre (Jpn). B-Hidaka Taiyo Bokujo
6th-TOK, ¥13,400,000 ($128k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1600m
AMERICAN YELL (c, 2, Tapit–Sindy With an S, by Broken Vow), a $700K KEESEP purchase, is out of a Grade III-winning dam who has already worked well with this sire, producing SW & GSP My Miss Tapit and the GSP duo I’ll Wrap It Up and Rattataptap. Owner Katsumi Yoshizawa, who campaigned Master Fencer (Jpn) (Just A Way {Jpn}) in the 2019 Triple Crown, also races SP American Seed (Tapit), who aired by seven lengths in his first start on dirt last weekend. B-Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd (KY)
ANNUNCIATION (c, 2, Union Rags–Acquant, by Giant’s Causeway) is the first produce for his three-time winning dam, a daughter of dual Grade III winner Social Queen (Dynaformer), whose son Force The Pass (Speightstown) took out the 2015 GI Belmont Derby Invitational S. A $230K KEESEP acquisition, the chestnut is a half-brother to an Arrogate colt that was bought back for $425K at KEESEP last month and a weanling colt by Mastery. B-Colts Neck Stables LLC (KY)
NIGHT FROLIC (c, 2, Into Mischief-Frolic’s Revenge, by Vindication) is out of a five-time stakes winner that has already been responsible for SW American Frolic (Blame) and SP Mc Awesome (Super Saver). The April foal’s MSW second dam Stormy Frolic (Summer Squall) was a daughter of GSW Lindsay Frolic (Mt. Livermore), whose 10 winners from 12 to race included GSW/MGISP Super Frolic (Pine Bluff). Night Frolic cost $300K at KEESEP. B-Woodford Thoroughbreds (KY)
The post Notable US-Bred & -Sired Runners in Japan: Oct. 31, 2020 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
