After an early start to the final week of the winter-spring season at Santa Anita Park yesterday, they are back at it in Arcadia with a 9-race card that kicks off at 4PM eastern/1PM local time. The card is headlined by the $100,000 Possibly Perfect Stakes at 1 1/4-miles over the Hillside Turf Course and makes up the second leg of Friday’s All-Turf Pick 3. Here are a few horses I plan to build my day around.
Race 1:
The top two choices on the morning line are likely to be tough in this 5-furlong turf event for state-bred MSW foes. 6-5-favorite #4 Zip Me Up bested #6 Sacred Sound last month in a race where the speeds did not hang around late. I like Sacred Sound though to turn the tables in the rematch. The Altamira Racing Stable filly was returning off a 9-month break for Peter Miller last out and ran like it. She broke just okay and then struggled to relax leaving her with little left when the real running started, but I expect better in the opener. Her early speed, the cutback to 5-panels, and the move to Juan Hernandez all spell trouble for this field of non-winners assuming she can get out of the gate in good order.
Play: #6 Sacred Sound (2-1 ML)
Picks: 6-4-5
Race 5:
This state-bred MSW at 6.5-furlongs over the Santa Anita grass appears more wide-open than the morning line suggests. That is because I am not in love with taking anything close to the 9-5-ML offering on career maiden #10 Booked Clubhouse. The Sean McCarthy trainee has hit the board in 4 of his 8 starts, but lacks speed and has burnt a decent amount of coin along the way. He will eventually find his friends, but it will not be with my backing. I will try to beat him with #6 Owl. The son of Sir Prancealot makes his second career start after a solid run at odds of 40-1 to finish fourth on debut. Veteran conditioner Neil Drysdale adds the blinkers, which hopefully leads to enough improvement to handle this large field of non-winners. I will take my chances it does at his morning line price or higher.
Play: #6 Owl (5-1 ML)
Picks: 6-1-10
Race 7: Possibly Perfect
My final play of the afternoon in Arcadia comes in the aforementioned feature at 10-furlongs over the lawn where I like #3 Innovative. This group of nine set to go to post at 4:02 local time lacks early speed and I am hopeful it is jockey Ricky Gonzalez that takes advantage. The daughter of Complexity broke fine from her inside draw last out going one-mile in the Royal Heroine (G3), but was not ridden for early speed in a race that was always going to set far quicker fractions than this one. With the knowledge that this is a quarter mile longer and her best chance to get the distance is to get to the front and carry her speed all the way much like she did in her maiden breaker at 1 1/8-miles a little over a year ago over this same turf, the mission should be obvious. With an inside draw and the probable race shape, I am hopeful it is Gonzalez that gets to the front early and dictates terms throughout. If so, Innovative stands a very good chance of springing the minor upset.
Play: #3 Innovative (5-1 ML)
Picks: 3-2-8
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