Before heading into the rule picks for tomorrow’s Woodbine card — with longshots a good possibility — let’s look at THE FIVE OF SIX WINNERS you could have had if you played the six maiden races highlighted in last Friday’s column. Here’s the text for each race that appeared in that column followed by the winners in caps.

  • Race 1, 7-furlong maiden claimer: #7 Ontario Holiday has the highest 7-furlong Equibase speed figure of 67. #7 WON AND PAID $5.40.
  • Race 5, maiden claiming turf sprint: Top jockeys are riding first-time starter #5 and second-time starter #4. #4 WON AND PAID $3.20.
  • Race 6, 71/2-furlong maiden turf allowance: #1 has second best 7-furlong speed of 73. #1 WON AND PAID $7.10.
  • Race 7, 2-year-old maiden allowance: Very tricky because lots of first-time starters. Mark Casse has #2 and #6 with top jocks. #6 WON AND PAID $12.90
  • Race 9, 7 ½-furlong maiden turf allowance: #5 (7-5) comes from England where all four of her lifetime races were at the 7-furlong specialist distance. #5 WON AND PAID $5.50.
  • Race 11, maiden optional turf route claimer: #5 Empire’s Treat (4-1) has the best turf closing fraction in the race. #5 FINISHED SECOND, PAID $4.10 TO PLACE.

And in the King’s Plate last Friday, if you played my suggested superfecta wheel keying favourite My Boy Prince first and second with five horses with the best in-the-money finishes, I hope you noticed I had overlooked the in-the-money stat (5 for 6) of the ultimate winner, filly Caitlinhergrtness, and added her to your wheels. I think I misread 5 of 6 as being 5 of 8 because small sixes and eights can appear similar. By adding her to your 20-cent superfecta wheels, you would have spent $48 to collect $316.

Now on to tomorrow’s early pick-5 at Woodbine where three legs—races 2, 3 and 5—might produce longshots and, hence, a big payout for a pocket-change wager.

  • Race 2, maiden turf route claimer: #6 Playfully Frac’in (10-1) made a middle move in her last race, a good sign that her best race is yet to come. You also know about the added-up rule for finding other contenders in the maiden race.
  • Race 3, maiden allowance for 2-year-olds: #1 Motown Funk (8-1) showed quick early pace in her first lifetime start (92 pace figure) and may not stop this time.
  • Race 4, maiden turf optional claimer: #2 and #4 are dropping into a claimer from the vaunted maiden special weight condition. #6 has the lowest added-up numbers of five.
  • Race 5, optional claimer: #4 Cinnamon Bits (8-1) is dropping from a $50,000 allowance optional claimer into a straight $40,000 optional claimer; #5 Great Kate (7-2) is being raised in class from $25,000 after being claimed by an 18 per cent trainer.
  • Race 6, starter optional claimer: #9 Life Is Hard, maybe a hunch play, is being dropped in class significantly. #3 and #5 have the highest recent speed figures.

So your on-the-cheap pick-5 that would pay big is 6/1/2,4,6/4,5/3,5,9 that would cost you all of $3.60 for a 20-cent wheel.

One more observation that seems to call for a big show bet: #2 Chromeplated Heart in race 8 is 12-1 yet her in-the-money finish record is 9 for 10. She finished a very logical third last time at odds of 25-1 and paid $10.30 to show. She also could be keyed for third in 20-cent triactor or superfecta wagers since she finished third 11 times in 23 starts. Take what they give you.

~ by Ivan Bigg