Jeff Siegel’s What You Need to Know – Del Mar – 8/29/24
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Del Mar 6th Race – Post: 4:38 PT. Degree of confidence: A-
Top Selection: Cavalieri
Other Contenders: none.
Forecast: Cavalieri finally makes it to the post late in her three year old season and we suspect the wait will be worth it based on the way she’s been training. The daughter of Nyquist, a $900,000 OBS purchase in April, 2023, has easily handled all comers in her morning trial despite never really being asked to show her best stuff, and while debuting around two turns is never and easy task she appears to have the speed and class to handle this assignment and then go on to bigger and better things. The B. Baffert stable hits at a sensational 29% with first timers, so there’s little concern about her readiness. At 8/5 on the morning line, she’s a confident win play and rolling exotic single.
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Del Mar 8th race – Post: 5:38PT. Degree of confidence: B
Top Selection: 1-Runamileinmyshoes
Other Contenders: 3-Stop Digging.
Forecast: In her ninth career start, Runamileinmyshoes finally gets a chance on dirt, the surface that she’s bred to prefer, so we’re expecting a considerable amount of improvement by the daughter of Street Boss in this allowance optional claiming main track miler for fillies and mares. Fresh from earning a career top speed figure when a close fifth in a similar affair on the sod here last month, she continues to impress in her main track workouts, lands the cozy inside post, and retains regular pilot J. Hernandez, so the starts are aligned for winning effort. A versatile sort who can win on the front end or from a second flight, stalking position, the J. Mullins-trained sophomore is listed at 3-1 on the morning line and offers a sound gamble at that price in the win pool and in the various exotics.
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JEFF SIEGEL’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW – SARATOGA – 8/29/24
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Saratoga 6th Race – Post: 3:53 ET. Degree of confidence: B
Top Selection: 3-Fiddling Felix.
Other Contenders: none.
Forecast: Showing the classic two-sprints-and-a-stretch-out pattern, Fiddling Felix looks ready to step forward again in this maiden miler for juveniles, and after breaking poorly in his first two career starts the son of Mendelssohn hopefully will leave with his field today and give himself a legitimate chance to earn his diploma. He improved his speed figure by 17 points in his most recent outing despite getting left at the barrier and then commencing his rally too soon while wide on the turn before losing some of his punch late to wind up a better-than-looked fourth. Today, he should get the patient ride he needs from new pilot J. Castellano while offerering enticing wagering value at or near his morning line of 9/2.
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Saratoga 10th race – Post: 6:16 ET. Degree of confidence: A-
Top Selection: 7-Zulu Kingdom (Ire).
Other Contenders: none.
Forecast: Zulu Kingdom (Ire) turned some heads in his debut at Saint-Cloud in France in early June, winning with authority with an impressive display of late speed against a representative group of European juvenile maidens in a performance that stamped him as a future star. Now in the C. Brown barn, the Irish-bred colt makes his stateside bow in this year’s edition of the With Anticipation S.-G3 and lands F. Prat, so we’re expecting him to pick up where he left off in France. This seems like a fairly decent field but with no world beaters, so at 4-1 on the morning line he’ll offer reasonable wagering value, especially so as a rolling exotic single.
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