It was an excellent day for us in this space last night as we swept all three of our highlight plays en route to a cold $100 Late Pick 3. Let’s try to keep that momentum rolling into Saturday’s card.
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Selections
- Race 1: 3-5-7-6
- Race 2: 4-5-3-7
- Race 3: 1-8-6-4
- Race 4: 1-6-9-5
- Race 5: 2-6-5-1
- Race 6: 1-8-5-2
- Race 7: 2-3-1-8
- Race 8: 3-6-5-1
- Race 9: 1-3-2-5
- Race 10: 6-1-11-2
Colonial Downs Race 5: Fulmineo (#2) at 5-2 or higher
It’s a pretty fun matchup in the first of two stakes races on Saturday’s card. Gigante (#6) is the horse to beat as he drops in against VA-Restricted company for the first time in his career after contesting graded stakes most of his career. His crowning achievement came over this turf course when he notched the G2-Secretariat back in 2023. However, 2025 has been a bit of a disappointment as he’s only hit the board once in five turf starts. Maybe he’ll wake up on the class drop, but he does face a formidable rival in this spot who I believe will offer a better price. My top pick is Fulmineo (#2) who has also shown an affinity for this turf course winning a race over it each of the last two seasons. While he is also yet to notch a victory this season, I thought he ran admirably off the layoff in the Henry Clark rallying for third at 11-1 and was competitive at Laurel last time despite a steady at the half-mile pole. I think the 8.5f furlongs is better for him than Gigante who specializes at the flat mile.
Colonial Downs Race 9: Cut From Class (#1) at 5-1 or higher
The other stakes on the card goes as the penultimate race on the Saturday slate and also features a heavy favorite I’ll take a small shot against. Lifelovenlaughter (#3) enters this VA-Restricted contest off a win in an open stakes race last time and a repeat of that effort should be good enough to win here. However, she was 6-1 that day and will be sub-2:1 in this spot and also stretches back out to 8.5f. I do prefer her chances to her chief rival Winfinity (#2) who gets to the turf for the first time since a failed attempt at Kentucky Downs last fall. Perhaps, she didn’t like the quirky setup there, but I still don’t want to take a short price on a horse being bet off her dirt form. I landed on Cut From Class (#1) who figures to be a square price. She was defeated by the favorite in the Jameela Stakes, but I thought that was an encouraging effort to hit the board. She’s run twice since that effort and it seems she has increased positional speed. She tired against tougher over this course two-back and I thought she lost her chance early in her last when not able to get forward. Now she’s drawn inside and I’m hoping she gets an aggressive ride from Jevian Toledo and they leave her alone on the front end.
Colonial Downs Race 10: Cobblestone Bridge (#6) at 3-1 or higher
There’s quite a few ways to go in the finale as these claimers all are in search of their second lifetime win. Souper Attentive (#11) is likely to go off favored for top connections in jockey Ben Curtis, trainer Mark Casse, and owner Live Oak. This is a slight drop in class from his two previous local tries, but I thought he gave it up readily in the lane there and don’t need him at a short price. Ky Thirty Won (#1) is interesting right back after a facile win breaking his maiden last time with a furious rally down the lane. He’s switching to a new barn off that effort that isn’t usually active in the claiming box and could get a nice pocket trip from this inside post. However, I need to take Cobblestone Bridge (#6) here as the top pick as I liked him in a tougher spot on the Arlington Million undercard that he scratched out of. My theory on him is that he’s actually taken a step forward from 3-to-4 and now gets back on the surface he’s bred for. Both the owner and trainer are often competing for meet titles, so I don’t mind this guy being offered for a tag.
#TheCheatSheet
2025 Summer Meet Statistics (thru 8/15)
All
Top Picks: 119-33-28-16 (28%, $1.83); Featured Horses: 39-9-7-9 (23%, $2.28)
Fair Odds Met
Top Picks: 70-14-21-7 (10%, $1.79); Featured Horses: 28-7-6-5 (25%, $2.71)
Grid
Percent of Races Won By: A’s: 43%; B’s: 37%; C’s: 18%; X’s: 2%
