By Joe Quillen
Wednesday 2/21/24 – Turfway Park Race 5
Sometimes when I head to Vegas and I am in the mood to play some horses, I experiment. Living in Pennsylvania, I am unable to wager on quarterhorse races. I couldn’t do that last Wednesday on my last full day in Vegas since Louisiana Downs completed their races for the day by the time I got my morning stuff completed, so I thought I’d experiment with a track that I do not usually play until their biggest day of the season, which is the end of March. I decided knowing the weather on the east coast last Wednesday that I would play with the safest option for me on that Wednesday night. I played Turfway Park which is in Florence, Kentucky.
It was the first time I played a random card at Turfway Park in years. I would occasionally watch the races, but most nights, I’d pass. But on this day, I was diving headfirst into the short end of the pool.
When I play an entire race card like this, I’m regimented with my wagers, depending upon my bankroll. I was playing $5 to win on all races, and $5 ice-cold daily doubles on the first two races and the last two races. Turns out it was a good way for me to play, because I had a 10/1 shot winner in the opener and a 4/1 shot in the second race, which lead to a double that paid almost $300 for my $5 wager.
With the fact that the Daily Racing Form chose a race from Tampa Bay Downs which was already declared as off the turf as of Sunday afternoon, I thought that I would try something different and see if I can replicate the return I had at Turfway Park and chose the fifth race on their card, which is a maiden race for three year old fillies going one mile on their main synthetic track.
We have an overflow field of 14 fillies entered for tonight’s race, but only 12 will run. So expect the 13 Janey Creed (12/1 morning line) and the 14 Mother Freedom (20/1 ML) to be scratched unless someone from the main portion of the field gets scratched. Janey Creed is cross entered into Friday’s fifth race, so if there’s a scratch from the main field, the 13 scratches and the 14 stays in. But we will leave that for Turfway to resolve early in the day on Wednesday.
The 9 Moonlight Gambler is the 3/1 morning line favorite here and is back from her first race since the end of October at Keeneland. She finished fifth in a Grade 2 turf race going a mile and a sixteenth and did drift around a little bit when she dropped back into maiden company at the end of the fall Keeneland meet. She might have gotten things together before taking her break, but she was drifting around in the lane last time out. She’s been training on Keenleland’s synthetic training track, so it should be interesting what she does when the lights shine down on her and the others tonight.
The 7 Aldora (5/1 ML) appears to like this synthetic surface at Turfway after two races at Churchill. I’m interested in seeing how she is placed because she was speed in sprint races, but she’s got to go around two turns in this route race. There doesn’t appear to be much speed other than the 8 Stakeout (8/1 ML) but she’s also going from a sprint to a route distance here.
The 2 Spellcheck (9/2 ML) closed some in her Turfway Park debut last month, and also stretches to a route here. Don’t sleep on the trainer here as she is a multiple Canadian Triple Crown winning trainer Josie Carroll. Spellcheck will appreciate the chance to run a second time at Turfway today.
The 1 Guinevere (4/1 ML) is a first timer sired by triple crown winner Justify. If you remember from past articles, Justify’s offspring have run well so far going a mile or longer, so if that form holds, she should have no issues here. Trainer Wesley Ward wins 26% of the time when his horses are entered for the first time, 22% of the time when his horses run on Lasix for the first time and 30% in synthetic races. Those numbers along with the workouts that she had over the last few weeks will make her my pick for tonight’s race.
I’m calling this race 1-2-9-7, and my play is $20 to win on the 1. Good luck everyone, and I’ll be back tomorrow with another Quills Picks Winners.
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