I thought today’s card looked rather chalky so I only have a couple of shorter prices for today’s selections. But we’ll be back next week and it’s a big one featuring the Woodbine Mile and that card is usually fantastic!
Race 5: #6 Babbo (2-1)
I circled the race on July 30th that #6 Babbo exits as one to watch going forward. So far it’s done pretty good with the third place finisher returning to finish second in a strong race on King’s Plate Day, the fourth place finisher would finish fourth of eleven in a stakes race, and the 5th place finisher returned to win. I was most impressed with the top two, Babbo is the first of those to return to the races. He was involved in a fast pace involving three horses early on. He shook off both pace rivals, opened up a big lead in the stretch, and got caught right at the wire by a deep closer. The two pace rivals finished nowhere as the top three were well clear of the rest and he earned a strong 97 Timeform US speed figure. There’s other speed in this race, but he drew the outside post so Flores will be able to play the break and he showed he can pass horses in his debut. He also nearly has the highest late pace figures in the field to pair with the highest early pace figures so he’s a strong play for me at anything higher than even money.
Race 6: #6 Country Living (3-1)
Very similar case for my top in this next race and that’s #6 Country Living (3-1). I’m assuming you’ll get a better price though with the presence of a couple maiden special weight droppers. He broke okay, but moved up to make it three across the track heading into the turn and dueled with those rivals until he put them away at the top of the stretch. A new rival came to challenge and took over in the stretch, but Country Living battled back the whole way to the wire to just get nosed out. The figure didnt come back great, but I thought he showed a lot of heart in that performance and the two horses he dueled with finished last and second-to-last so he was completely against the race flow. Trainer isn’t having a great meet, but does have good stats with second time starters and it’s encouraging that Hernandez bothers to ride back.
