Whitney Day at Saratoga…

Whitney day is very special and with the recent passing of Mary Lou Whitney, it’s worth a special mention.  In New York racing she is not simply remembered as a Blue Blood, but rather as a “salt of the earth” type, who made many causes her passion… and one of those causes is New York racing itself.  Many have said, she is responsible for the rebirth of Saratoga, of course I always had known Saratoga as alive and well.  But that doesn’t matter, she has earned her PROPERS as far as I can tell.  I thought it was a very fitting move by NYRA to name the main entrance at Saratoga after her, which confirms the credits she has garnered.  so to Mary Lou, for all you did for me and my racing “Bros”, even though I might never have known, a big thanks and travel safe.

Back to horse racing, the Whitney as a race is always one that feels like one of my favs.  My first experience of the Whitney was watching Alydar thunder down the stretch and win going away by 10 lengths, as a 3-year old, while going against older, handicap, racers.  My friends, who spent a great deal of time schooling me, were almost crazy at explaining how significant it was that the 3-year old demolished the best handicap horses in the world!  I hope you will get a chance to see the powerful Alydar as he thundered down the lane… he was truly phenomenal.

Tomorrow’s card, has another potentially great edition of the Whitney, I have McKinzie as my top Rated horse and he has STAR form, we all saw his travails in the Met Mile and that should set him up for a nice forward move.  His rating of 80.5 for a fully matured 4-year old who ran nearly 78.0 at 1 1/16 as an early 3-year old is not tremendous progression.  As an early 3-year old, I had forecast some really big number, maybe as high as a Ghostzapper at 83.5 or higher, but then he got injured before his Kentucky Derby.  The rebound was a little slower than I had expected, but it appears he is finally moving forward in form.  So his upside, at least in my mind, is exceptional – hence the STAR.  For me the race basically pits McKinzie against the very late developing Preservationist and the Saratoga loving Yoshida.  These 3 are all formidable in their own right, but I always thought that McKinzie was cut of a better cloth.  But because his odds are so low, he did not get my Featured Play status on the JJPP-PLUS.  Just because you love a horse and his form, doesn’t mean the horses is a good play – at least that’s my attitude.

And then the Test Stakes is front and center as well.  If you have a need for speed, you will see Serengeti Empress and Convfefe lay it down… and I full expect to see “SMOKE” as they blaze around the track, but it is 7 furlongs and the potential speed duel, which I fell highly confident will materialize, which makes a plethora of options possible.  Do I here UPSET…

Del Mar has a good card as well, but not the headliners.  Just 10 good races…

Saturday’s Menu

Saratoga – Power Page Classic and Power Page PLUS

Del Mar – Power Page Classic and Power Page PLUS

Stay with Jerry J and Stay with the Power Page !!!

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

Stay with Jerry J and Stay with the Power Page !!!