Less than one month into the Santa Anita Fall Meet and there’s already a Pick 6 carryover pool of $54,223 heading into the card this Friday. The $2 wager won’t be easy to hit but it could be a lucrative payout for anyone who picks the winners of races 4 through 9.
Santa Anita, Race 4 (5:30 p.m. EST)
KOOL MARIAH was ‘in range’ of fleet-footed favorite Christel Clean (11/3-4-1, $204k) until the eighth pole but settled for second best in the same spot at 37-1 odds two starts back. MISS PRACTICAL, plagued by slow starts, flashed a :47-2/5 bullet workout September 5 to prep for her first main-track route. She ran her best races at Santa Anita at the turn of the new year, finishing in the money in three consecutive 6F sprints.
Santa Anita Race 5 (6:00 p.m. EST)
GEOMETRY tailed off after a maiden-breaking win at this distance on the Santa Anita lawn in March. She got eligible for this race when claimed for $16,000 last out and is a wake-up candidate after facing the likes of Grade 3-placed Lord Bullingdon (4-17, $355k) and recent three-peat winner El Rey Rey ($343k on turf). DALRAGO makes the cross-country journey back into the barn of trainer Bob Hess Jr. after a photo-finish setback in a 1-1/8-mile grass race at Colonial Downs. She ‘bid late’ but couldn’t reach drifting leader McCullough, who came back with two more wins and an average 84 Beyer.
Santa Anita Race 6 (6:30 p.m. EST)
FINE IRISH MORNING, off poorly and wide through the turn, faded badly in a fast-paced MSW sprint two back. But he set the pace and factored for this far last out on the class drop to this level. That improved one-mile run at Los Alamitos should set him up well in this spot off a :59-4/5 bullet workout at Santa Anita. MYSTIC MOSES showed good speed in the MSW ranks and is the 8-to-5 morning-line favorite on the class plunge. He changes equipment and changes riders for a 22-percent barn with maiden claimers.
Santa Anita Race 7 (7:00 p.m. EST)
ROSELEE MAY ranged up 3-wide on the final turn of a longer turf marathon than today but flattened out in the stretch. She rallied in tandem with Vronti, who exploded in the stretch to win going away and validated that effort with a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Rodeo Drive Stakes next out. ROSELEE MAY, a six-figure turf earner, returns to the $50,000 level, where she is 3-for-3 going a route of ground. Late-running WINK AND A GRIN won two turf routes at Santa Anita as a 3-year-old last year. She appears rounding to a good race after rallying into a slow pace and finishing third at 1-1/16 miles last out.
Santa Anita, Race 8 (7:30 p.m. EST)
JADE’S MOST WANTED was no factor in a $50,000 maiden claimer to start her career, but she is today’s solo play on the class drop. She shows three good gate works since her debut, presumably with blinkers that she will wear today. Her recent :47-1/5 bullet was a full second or more faster than 6 of 7 others who worked 4F from the gate last Friday. Kimura, who rode contender HARKETTE in her debut, switches mounts in here.
Santa Anita, Race 9 (8:00 p.m. EST)
Going 3-deep in a wide-open finale, a one-mile Maiden Special Weight test on the grass. ROYAL RUMOR owns the top turf speed figure in the field and starts fresh off a string of solid workouts. CHAOTIC NEUTRAL showed marked improvement on the stretch-out in distance in his second turf start, finishing a half-length behind next-out winner Heroic Dose (73 Beyer). ZAKIEL finished second on the dirt at 6F and one mile in his last two starts, but he finished ahead of next-out winners in both. He changes surfaces off a fastest-of-35 move on the main track. His dam, Zendreya, was 0-4 on the lawn but one of her siblings, King of Dragons, was a $133k turf earner, mostly at Santa Anita.
Suggested Pick 6
SA 4th race: 3, 6
SA 5th race: 1, 6
SA 6th Race: 2, 5
SA 7th race: 3, 4
SA 8th Race: 11
SA 9th Race: 2, 4, 9
Cost for a $2 Ticket: $96
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