Horse Racing Free Pick of the Day - June 24th, 2008

[Shame About Ray]

Mountaineer’s feature race on Tuesday night is a 4 ½ furlong sprint on the turf course. One thing that online racebook fans must note is that even though speed is king at the 4 ½ furlong distance, speed on the turf is always different then speed on the main track. A horse that gets an easy lead on the turf doesn’t always finish as well as a horse that gets an easy lead on the main track.



Turf breeding plays a huge role in how well horses run on the turf.

Let’s get to it!

Mountaineer Park - - Race 4

Alw 24900 n2L

For fillies and mares three-years old and up that have never won two races

4 ½ furlong on turf

Strip Poker - - 2/1 morning line

This daughter of Horse Chestnut is bred to absolutely love the turf. Her turf form hasn’t been all that great lately, but trainer Eric Reed is making a couple of key changes in order to turn things around. First, the quality is definitely there as she broke her maiden at Turfway Park in a $50,000 maiden claimer back in January of 2007. She hasn’t done much since then and the lay-offs point to some injury issues, but that’s okay. Reed puts blinkers on her for the first time, a 27% winning move on his part, and this is her second race off of a lay-off. That should also give online racebook fans confidence. Reed hits at 18% with that move. What’s the most telling sign? Reed could have easily run her in a claiming race but decided to go for the money in this allowance. That shows ultra-confidence.

Lullabye Princess - - 3/1 morning line

She lost by 14 ¾ lengths in her first try on turf in her last race, but she’s bred to absolutely love the stuff. That makes her a good play in this race even with the horrible last race. Her speed rating before the last race debacle was plenty good enough to win this by open lengths and she gets the services of jockey T. Nguyen who might get her to ration her speed just a bit more than usual. A viable win candidate in this affair.

Watchin Senorita - - 9/5 morning line

The likely race-time chalk looks to be the fastest out of the gate but she’s trying turf for the first time and isn’t bred to love it. Her trainer hasn’t saddled a winner yet at the meet and probably won’t get his first with this lightly raced gal. There are too many question marks regarding her to take the expected short price.

Wagering Strategy

I’m going to place an off track betting wager on Strip Poker to win and put on top in an exacta with Watchin Senorita and Lullabye Princess. I’ll reverse that exacta for less.

Good luck!

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