Let’s be honest…
The JJPPs and JJPP-PLUS have been doing very well, both at Saratoga and Del Mar. But the environment has been difficult at both venues. Saratoga’s racing on Thursday was a series of competitive races, often with light racing histories to make judgments upon. That’s fine and I certainly do not mind, but we all need to remember, this kind of racing need solid pricing when we bet and a reasonable understanding that we are not going to string win streaks along every single day.
On Thursday, it was a difficult card, but I did focus our attention on one Pop Out Key, that being I Love Jaxson who won well paying $13.60. HE was a STAR horse and a listed “PK”. The exacta was cold, from my TOP TWO contenders and the TOP TWO PPNs in the ratings. The exacta paid $71 for $2.00 wager.
Then in the finale, Saltking, my TOP RATED CONTENDER won paying $13.00 and the exacta with my STAR horse and Contender’s LIST horse Klickitat who ran 2nd paid $93.50 for $2.00 wager. I am sure, it seems like a walk in the desert sometimes and you wonder when you are going to be able to sip on something to wet your whistle. But we have a great and long history of getting our share PLUS! Today’s races at Saratoga were both challenging and definitely worth playing. Just as an added comment, the 4 horses in the Contender’s List in the 10th at Saratoga, came in 1,3,2 & 4 Essentially COLD, to complete the Superfecta at $620 for $1.00 play.
Now on to Del Mar… again I think we did really well, considering the slim pickings. AS for the Del Mar environment we are playing in, it’s really been bad this year. You can easily tell, with Favorites winning at a 46% rate. With a single trainer, Peter Miller winning at over 40% and we just saw Doug O’Neill win 5 of 7 races on Wednesday. NOTE, once again, we had the best price horse on both Wedensday’s card with Oil Can Knight paying $24.60 in the 3rd. But we also had the $49 winner of the first race, listed as our 2nd best Contender.
But I want to opine on these STATS I just mentioned when talking about Del Mar. Today we saw races reduced to 4 and 5 horse fields and we are only getting 7 races a day to play. And there is at least a single race with mostly first time starters. Sometimes the entire race is theorizing about breeding angles and other handicapping ideas I like to bring to the table. I would much prefer – on your behalf – to be evaluating real races and past performances. They are experiencing lower handle at Del Mar and I think that will get their attention. Hopefully, they can card more races with more racing to evaluate, with more horses.
But in the meantime, every 12/1 like Staythirstymyamigo who ran a great 2nd in the 5th on Thursday after being shut off at the break and Oil Can Knight and So Gucci that carries a price, I will be hunting down on your behalf…
Friday’s Menu
Saratoga – Power Page Classic and Power Page PLUS
Del Mar – Power Page Classic and Power Page PLUS