Gulfstream Park begins its Championship Meet this Friday, offering a 50-cent Late Pick 4 wager covering races 6 through 9. It appears a difficult sequence and a potential lucrative payout for those who solve the puzzle.
GP 6th race (2:34 P.M. EST) -- Six of the seven entrants in this 7F race were claimed within their last three starts. PURE SPEIGHT held his form well, finishing second to hard-hitting Concrete Glory (10-26, $189k) in his three-peat attempt before he was carried 8-wide while chasing the even-money winner last out. MORGAN POINT disappeared in a pair of fast-paced, $35,000 optional claiming races, but he warrants a second look off his prior two starts that produced a total of three next-out winners. CHAPALU won on the front end at three distances in his last five starts, all on the synthetic track at Gulfstream. His only start on conventional dirt was in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis stakes at Tampa three years ago.
GP 7th race (3:04 P.M. EST) -- FULL DISCLOSURE, PANTHER ISLAND and EXTENDO are a combined 11-for-17 with $287k in earnings on the synthetic track so we’ll rest our Pick 4 hopes on that trio. FULL DISCLOSURE earned his top speed figure despite trouble in winning his last start. PANTHER ISLAND is a head short of a perfect record on the surface and worked a :45.4 bullet for his return from an eight-month layoff. EXTENDO, the top pick, showed a new dimension when rallying for a repeat victory off the claim.
GP 8th race (3:34P.M. EST) -- Proven turf sprinters arrive from six tracks for today’s featured race, so go deep in this leg. SOUZAK has yet to recapture his three-peat winning form in France, but he met better in a pair of stakes and adds blinkers off a bullet work last Sunday. BAD BEAT BRIAN has eight wins, more than $700k in earnings and two near misses in Grade 2 company on the grass. ZARAK, a stakes-winning turf router in Chile, showed blazing speed on the synthetic track since his arrival for a high-percentage barn with grass sprinters. NO WAY HUDSON raced exclusively in turf stakes since a debut win at Keeneland, notching one win, two seconds and a third in eight starts on the lawn. AXTHELM runs for Zayas and looks to rally into a torrid pace as he did in a photo-finish allowance victory.
GP 9th race (4:03 P.M. EST) -- CALMING SEA sustained a 3-wide bid on the final turn and ‘drove clear’ to win in her first route attempt and second start locally, earning her top speed figure. R AWESOME SAUCE ran third as the favorite in a higher-tagged route race that produced two next-out winners two back, then tracked a slow pace and couldn’t gain on the class-dropping winner last out.
Suggested 50-Cent Ticket
GP 6th Race: 3, 4, 6
GP 7th Race: 2, 4, 5
GP 8th Race: 2, 4, 6, 7, 10
GP 9th Race: 1, 2
Cost for 50-cent ticket: $45
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