Rain could dampen opening week at Colonial Downs’ Summer Meet in New Kent, VA, with dozens of turf races scheduled. The advance weather forecast calls for a 55 to 75 percent chance of precipitation all week. We’ll look to an early Pick 3 on the Friday card with two of the races on the main track and a 10-horse maiden sprint to cap the sequence.
CNL 2nd race (4:30 p.m. EST) -- MAX CAPACITY’s debut bullet workout May 30 at Laurel Park was a full second faster than all but three others who breezed 4F that day. The $38,000 sales buy has kept busy since then for trainer Richard Sillaman, who has won with 6 of his last 18 starters at various venues. OUR DAY WILL COME also shows a flashy work tab at Laurel for Phillip Capuano, who is 7-for-38 with a positive R.O.I and 48-percent in the money with first-time starters in his first three years as a trainer. The horse’s dam, Defoe Street, was 3-for-7 on an off track. HUTCHINSON prepped at Keeneland for his first start and hopes to follow the lead of his sire, Tiz The Law, a multiple Grade 1 winner and Top 20 freshman sire this year and his dam, Angie Grand, a debut Maiden Special Weight winner at Parx. MORE THAN CUTE ran a deceptively good 4-1/2F race with Lasix on a sloppy track at Evangeline Downs and is worth using at 30-1 in a field with seven first-time starters. He was bumped inward at the break, fanned 6-wide at the top of the stretch as he gathered momentum and galloped out ahead of the runaway winner.
CNL 3rd race (5:00 p.m. EST) -- SCHRADER, a generous 12-1 on the morning line, hit peak form before a troubled trip last out. He won by 8 lengths in a ‘double key’ $40,000 claiming sprint at today’s distance three starts ago. Then he survived a front-end duel in allowance company, but ‘wandered’ in mid-stretch and finished second between a next-out allowance winner and runner-up who posted 82 and 81 Beyer speed figures, respectively. EASTBOSTONBENNY is a new horse of late, carrying his speed to back-to-back scores after a year-long winless drought. His uncoupled stablemate, VILLAGE PERSON, overcame fractious gate behavior and rallied to win in his debut at the Colonial Downs Spring Meet. CRAB DADDY, stakes-placed as 2-year-old, finished 5-1/2 lengths ahead of SCHRADER to finish second in an allowance race and projects an ideal stalking trip from post 9.
CNL 4th race (5:40 p.m. EST) -- CAPTAIN EDDIE seeks a duplicate of his first start on the turf. He shook a duel at the quarter pole and drew clear, only to get caught by Turbulent Force, who went wire-to-wire in a follow-up $75,000 optional claiming sprint. TRANSACTIONAL GUY, squeezed back to 10th in a well-bet debut, found his best stride in the 6-path in mid-stretch and is sure to draw a lot of attention for Team Russell. AMERICAN LITIGATOR showed some ability sprinting to start his career, returns to a sprint with blinkers back on and looms a longshot possibility. His dam, Laughing Falcon, capped a 3-for-3 start to her career with a stakes win on the grass. SAMDINI arrives off a recent bullet workout on Turfway Park’s all-weather track for trainer Ethan West, who won with 3 of his last 6 first-time starters at odds of 7-1, 13-1 and 24-1.
Suggested $1 Pick 3
CNL 2nd Race: 1, 4, 6, 8
CNL 3rd Race: 3, 6, 9
CNL 4th Race: 2, 4, 8, 10
Cost: $48
.svg){kind=logo}
