By Joe QUillen
Santa Anita Race 6 – San Juan Capistrano Stakes
Today is closing day, and like the closing day of every meet, everything must go! Well, all pools that have the potential of having a carryover must be paid out today. Also on closing day of the almost six month meet at Santa Anita that runs from the day after Christmas to mid-June is the tradition of running the San Juan Capistrano, which is a race that goes at an about distance of a mile and three quarters.
To give you an idea of how everything is set up, the field will start at the top of the hill and come to the finish line and then do another lap around the Santa Anita turf course. Today we have six horses who will go the marathon distance.
Favored in this race is the 6 Planetario (6/5 morning line) won this race last year ad could do it again today. He will probably wait until we get to around the final turn to make his big move.
The 3 Offlee Naughty (5/2 ML) will probably do the same thing as the favorite here. He is going to wait as long as he can and conserve energy for that rush to the finish.
The 2 Rockemperor (3/1 ML) had nowhere to go at the top of the stretch last time out in the Charles Whittingham at Santa Anita and might have won if he got boxed right behind the leaders as the winner stormed by.
The 4 Bee Catcher (12/1 ML) might be on the lead by default as this field will not go fast here with the marathon distance here. He might be the best of the rest here.
I’m going to go with the horse that had all kinds of trouble last time out, which is the 2 Rockemperor. There’s less horses in this race and will probably have the room to make a move before Offley Naughty and Planetario. I’ll call this 2-6-3-4 and my play is $20 to win on the 2. Good luck everyone!
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