Betting the Alcibiades on a Budget
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Keeneland Race Course opens Friday and will debut its new dirt main track for a card that is headlined by the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes. (Photo by Coady Photography)
This year’s edition of the Grade 1, $400,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes attracted a talented field of 13 that includes the recent graded stakes winner Fashion Alert for trainer Todd Pletcher. She’s the morning-line favorite at odds of 4-1.
This is a very interesting field. Some of these runners have won on the turf, on synthetic, in sprints, and going a route of ground. We even have the Peace and War who will be making her United States debut for trainer Olly Stevens. She finished second against males in her last start.
There seems to be plenty of speed in this field with many runners stretching out to a route after coming off of sprints. I’m looking for a runner that will be in the middle of the pack and has a good foundation for improvement. I landed on Gap Year.
Gap Year has excellent pedigree for this distance and for this surface (Keeneland Race Course is back to dirt on the main track). She had an encouraging debut when putting in a rally to finish third after a slow break on the dirt main track at Saratoga.
Gap Year’s dam, Dubai Escapade, was a graded stakes winner here at Keeneland on the old dirt main track. Her sire, 2006 Preakness Stakes winner Bernardini, was a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner on dirt and went on to earn more than $3-million. Although she drew a tough post on the outside, I think she will be able to drop into a good position given all the early speed to her inside. Given the difficulty of her post position, we should get a solid price on her. She’s 8-1 on the morning line.
Bet Strategy: With big fields like these, there always seems to be a big price mixed in the top two spots, so I’m going to key Gap Year in the exactas.
$1 exacta: 13 with All
$1 exacta: All with 13
Total Bet: $24
$400,000 Darley AlcibiadesFriday, Keeneland Race Course, Race 9, Post Time 5:13 p.m. ET1 1/16 miles, dirt, 2-year-old fillies
PP
Horse
Jockey
Weight
Trainer
1
Fashion Alert
John Velazquez
118
Todd Pletcher
2
Milehigh Butterfly
Brian Hernandez
118
William Connelly
3
Slava
Jon Court
118
Gennadi Dorochenko
4
Calamity Kate
Paco Lopez
118
Kelly Breen
5
Taylor S
Corey Lanerie
118
Dale Romans
6
Naval Command
Juan Leyva
118
William Kaplan
7
Innovative Idea
James Graham
118
Eoin Harty
8
Pangburn
Jesus Castanon
118
Ken McPeek
9
Top Decile
Rosie Napravnik
118
Al Stall Jr.
10
Paige
Chris Landeros
118
Donnie Von Hemel
11
Peace and War
Julien Leparoux
118
Olly Stevens
12
Take Charge Brandi
Luis Saez
118
D. Wayne Lukas
13
Gap Year
Joel Rosario
118
Kiaran McLaughlin