DerbyJackpot’s Best Bets of the Weekend for Oct. 25-26
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Belmont Park photo by Penelope P. Miller/America's Best Racing
America’s Best Racing and DerbyJackpot team up to provide horseplayers with their best bets of the weekend in a regular feature blog that will run on Fridays.
Each week, one of our crack handicappers - Jose Contreras, Dan Tordjman, Victoria Garofalo or Cory Moelis – will provide at least one “Best Bet” of the weekend, ideal for a win bet.
The post also will include some combination of additional bets for the weekend.
For some posts, our handicappers will try to identify a longshot play of the weekend, a nice opportunity to swing for the fences on a win bet or to take a shot with a show bet.
Our handicappers also will look for strong exacta plays for the weekend or occasionally try to spot a nice opportunity to bet a trifecta or superfecta.
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This Weekend’s Bets
Saturday
Best Bet (Win/Monkey Bet)
Belmont Park, Race 8 – The Chelsea Flower Stakes, 4:27 p.m. ET
#6 Miss Chatelaine: Making her second career start after winning her debut by 2 ¼ lengths, Miss Chatelaine looks to be the one to beat in this 14 horse (3 main-track-0nly entrants), one-mile race on the Widener turf course. With jockey Joel Rosario on board for trainer Christophe Clement, you can’t ignore the 25% win percentage this team has this year.
Exacta Box (Gonzo Bet)
Belmont Park, Race 3 – The Bold Ruler Handicap (G3), 1:52 p.m. ET
#3 Sage Valley: After finishing second by a neck in his first race back off a 10-month layoff, Sage Valley could be coming back to the form he showed last year. Going back to 7 furlongs, a distance at which he has two wins in four races, after running at 6 in his previous four efforts and with the same 2-for-4 record at Belmont, I predict he’ll run a strong race this time with jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard.
#6 River Rocks: He ran extremely well last time out and has proven to be a serious racehorse, especially after finishing second by a length to Vyjack after setting a fast, contested pace in the Kelso Handicap. Cutting back to 7 furlongs should do just the trick. His last three triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures are worth nothing as is, I believe, the fact that rather than supplementing him to a Breeders’ Cup race, his connections has decided to run him in this race.
Sunday
Best Bet (Win/Monkey Bet)
OK, so this isn’t an actual bet you can place, but Sunday is Belmont’s last card until May and my best bet is that jockey Javier Castellano continues to ride his momentum to the leading jockey title for the meet – closely followed by Irad Ortiz and Joel Rosario. Be sure to catch the last day of live racing at Belmont until 2015!
Exacta Box (Gonzo Bet)
Belmont Park, Race 9 - The Turn Back The Alarm Handicap (G3), 4:58 p.m. ET
#2 Dame Dorothy: Dame Dorothy, a Todd Pletcher trainee owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, is riding a three-race winning streak (as is her stablemate Teen Pauline). I’m excited for her comeback as jockey Javier Castellano jumps off Toasting to take the mount, and I think she could run a nice race.
#8 Catch My Drift: Trainer Chad Brown has a pair of fillies entered in the race – Endless Chatter and Catch My Drift. Finishing in the top three in 9 of 10 starts, Endless Chatter was badly beaten in her last race in the Grade 1 Beldame Invitational Stakes, so I’m going to go with Catch My Drift, who’s only loss came when she ran 7th in this year’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. Jockey John Velazquez has the mount and just so happens to be have the most wins by a jockey in this race - four (1998, 1999, 2005 and 2008).