Churchill Downs will serve up a post-Thanksgiving feast this Friday. The Late Pick 4 encompasses 45 entrants and a pair of long-distance Grade 2 stakes on the main track and turf, respectively, in a 90-minute span to close the 12-race card. Here’s a closer look and a suggested $48 ticket:
CD 9th race (4:48 p.m. EST) -- ICHIBAN is trying to recapture her 3-year-old form from last year when she won a restricted stakes race and allowance at this distance. She starts fresh for new connections and zipped :46.2 in a 4F workout last Friday. SULTRY LASS ran two of her better allowance route races when stalking the pace and those tactics should come in handy in this spot as she removes the blinkers. AMBER CASCADE advanced 5-wide into the Churchill Downs stretch and just missed as Peignoir avenged a photo-finish setback in a rematch earlier this month.
CD 10th race (5:18 p.m. EST) -- There’s no room for error in the co-featured $300,000, Grade 2 Mrs. Revere Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf. More than half the entrants in the main body of the race have $290,000 or more in grass earnings and SIMPLY IN FRONT, the lone turf millionaire of the group, is 15-1 on the morning line. That said, MINOUSHKA is my solo play on the Pick 4 ticket off a smashing North America debut at Keeneland. She was bumped outward from post 12 at the break, rushed to save ground and appeared to be fighting jockey Tyler Gaffalione’s snug hold in the back of the pack. But she settled into stride on the backstretch, accelerated on the turn and navigated a traffic jam to explode to the lead in mid-stretch and widen on the gallop out in her first try beyond one mile. (If MINOUSHKA is scratched, use #6 PIN UP BETTY in her place.)
CD 11th race (5:48 p.m. EST) -- Trainer Brad Cox sends out a two-headed monster in the $600,000, Grade 2 Clark Stakes at 1-1/8 miles. HIT SHOW (pictured), the 3-1 morning-line favorite, rallied to win three graded stakes in a row at different tracks by less than a length. His stablemate, MOST WANTED, won the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby at today’s distance by a length to remain unbeaten in four starts with his biggest margin of victory. But they will have to fend off the likes of: multiple Grade 1-placed Crupi; late-running millionaires RATTLE N ROLL and RED ROUTE ONE, who are a combined 6-15 at the distance; speedy COOKE CREEK, whose three-race winning streak ended by a neck in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs; and longshot considerations like BOLZY, who adds blinkers after ‘doggedly’ fighting HIT SHOW to the wire and PIROLI, a Grade 1-placed marathoner who re-awakened with an allowance race upset last out. Go deep in Leg C of the sequence.
CD 12th race (6:18 p.m. EST) -- BERMUDA BLITZ bid 3-wide to a clear lead turning for home, while AKINMUSIRE shifted to the 5-path and passed the favorite to finish third behind a pair of late-running, debut longshots. STEPPE beat half the field in his debut despite drifting and not changing leads and could parlay that experience into a contending run against Kentucky-bred rivals today. The race winner just missed in a next-out stakes race. FULLY VOLATILE is working forwardly for his debut and the offspring of his sire, Volatile, are 11-52 in their first start as 2-year-olds.
Suggested 50-Cent Ticket
CD 9th Race: 2, 4, 6
CD 10th Race: 7
CD 11th Race: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
CD 12th Race: 2, 4, 5, 8
Cost: $48
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