The Spiral Stakes, Saturday March 22nd

William Thomas

This week we feature races on both Saturday and Sunday. There are two races in the 2014 Derby Point Series this weekend, the Spiral Stakes from Turfway on Saturday, and the Sunland Derby from Sunland Park on Sunday. We have selected 4 races Saturday and 2 races on Sunday.  Make your choices wisely, as you will have to spread your 15 picks across both days racing.  Scratches and changes for Sunday’s races will not be known at post time on Saturday.  Good Luck!

Race 1: The Excelsior Stakes.
The Excelsior at Aqueduct seems to be dominated by the coupled entry of Long River / Romansh, but you’d be foolish to leave out Percussion and Mr. Palmer.  They’ve got high jockey / trainer winning percentages and experience at this track.  Even Dawly has put up great speed figures.

Race 2: The Inside Information Stakes.
The Inside Information Stakes at Gulfstream features 3 Wolfson horses!  Does he know what it takes to train for this track?  There’s a lot to like on the inside this race, Five Star Momma has some good speed, My Pal Christy has a pair of 2nds this year, and good speed, and Centrique likes to win, and has a good jockey.  Are you going to leave the other Wolfson entry (Heart Stealer)off your card? Lots of horses moving up in class this race.

Race 3: The Bourbonette Oaks.
We go to Turfway for races 3 and 4 today, and boy are there a ton of entries for these two.  We’ve got a lot of horses moving up in class, or extending to the 1 mile distance today.  We’ve seen Swiss Lake Yodeler before in the challenge, did you like her then, do you like her now?  Shanon Nicole has Napravnik up, who she last won on.  Aurelia’s Belle and Sloan Square could be there as well.

Race 4: The Spiral Stakes.
The Spiral is the feature for the day and I wish you good luck in picking from this strong field.  Tamarando seems to be peaking at the right time, Solitary Ranger looks awesome if you throw out that one dud race, Almost Famous was a contender for the derby, but seems to just not be putting in the effort, a revival today?  Harry’s Holiday is out of Harlan’s Holiday, but has had an up and down career, and We Miss Artie got killed in the Fountain of Youth, but we see a return to John Velazquez who has seen some success with him.

Race 5: The Sunland Park Oaks.
We head out West to Baffert country for Sunday’s two races, the Oaks and the Sunland Derby.  Pletcher is throwing an improving Lucky For You into this race to battle Baffert’s Awesome Baby, winner of 2 so far this year at Santa Anita. Doug O’Neil brings Empress of Midway to contend, changing to John Velazquez, and going up in class, will he compete?

Race 6: The Sunland Derby.
Nine entries in the Sunland Derby, and one will get 50 points towards the Derby Series.  Baffert and Pletcher have each entered 4 horses in this race, and its easy to see that they are among the favorites.  Bourbonize started out strong, had a poor last showing, but a bullet workout last time out.  Commisioner did poorly in the Fountain of Youth as well, can he turn it around, followed by the other Pletcher entry, Global Strike who seemed to regress in only Maidens until picking up his first win.  I’m not sure he’s ready to make the jump in class.  The baffert entries Midnight Hawk and Chitu look tough to beat for sure.  I’m rooting for Tanzanite Cat to show something with N. Arroyo back on top, and perhaps Justin Evans can get something out of Rebranded that Pletcher couldn’t.

Good luck everybody, and be sure to take note that the last two races at Sunland Park are on Sunday, not Saturday.