Jeff Siegel’s What You Need to Know – Del Mar – 9/5/24
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Del Mar 6th Race – Post: 4:07 PT. Degree of confidence: B+
Top Selection: 1-Nene Diamond.
Other Contenders: 7-Diamond Bar Gal.
Forecast: Nene Diamond produced an intense amount of early speed en route to her gate-to-wire debut maiden victory on dirt at Santa Anita way back in February, 2023, but then disappeared. She returns in this five furlong grass dash for first level allowance fillies and mares that should suit her perfectly. She’ll have only one way to go from her rail draw, and in a field that appears to lack her kind of early zip the daughter of Stanford projects to control this abbreviated dash from gate to wire under the assumption that she returns as well as she left. The presence of top rider J. Hernandez indicates that she has, as does her work pattern that is steady, solid, and sufficient to have her fit and ready. At 5/2 on the morning line, she’s a gamble in the win pool and in the various exotics offerings.
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Del Mar 8th race – Post: 5:08 PT. Degree of confidence: B
Top Selection: Black as My Heart.
Other Contenders : none.
Forecast: Black as My Heart, away for 11 months, finds a soft spot for a new barn (strong stats with layoffs) and appears set to graduate in this modest miler for maiden claiming state bred older horses. Dropping into a seller for the first time, the homebred also returns as a first time gelding while making his first start on dirt, so there are a lot of reasons to believe this R. Baltas-trained 4-year-old will be set for a career top performance. Based on numbers from last year (admittedly, on turf), the son of He Be Fire N Ice should not be inconvenienced by the switch in surface, so let’s embrace him on the tote and in rolling exotic play and hope to get close to his morning line 3-1.
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