Sep 17, 9:07am | 4 min read

Friday Free Horse Racing Picks: Late Pick Four at Belmont Park

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Friday's free horse racing picks come to us from Belmont Park's opening week as racing handicapper Andrew Champagne breaks down his late Pick Four.

ANALYSIS

Friday Free Horse Racing Picks: Late Pick Four at Belmont Park

It’s opening week at Belmont Park, and Friday’s late Pick Four is headlined by a pair of stakes races for turf sprinters. The sequence starts in the sixth of nine races on the program, and I’ll look to attack it with an $18 ticket. Here’s how I’ve put it together.

Race #6

We kick things off with a very tricky maiden race for 2-year-olds. Only two of the 10 runners in here have raced before, so some deep dives are required.

I’m using three of the nine betting interests, and my top Pick is #2, CAIRAMA. Despite a pretty modest pedigree, this son of Cairo Prince sold for $525,000 earlier this year and has several strong gate drills ahead of his debut. The rail draw is less than ideal, but he may be talented enough to overcome it.

#1 SWING DISTRICT/#1A SYSTEMIC CHANGE and #3 AFJAN are on my ticket as well. These three well-bred first-time starters go out for trainers Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher, and Afjan, in particular, has several flashy works going into his first-afternoon outing.

Race #7

My single comes here, in the Allied Forces Stakes for 3-year-olds going six furlongs on the grass. Eight horses will go postward, and there’s one in here I really like.

#7 JAXON TRAVELER has never run a poor race. He’s won five of nine starts, has never finished out of the money and exits a strong effort in a stakes score at Pimlico. He’s only tried turf once, but he was third behind the freakishly-fast Golden Pal that day, and there are no such monsters in this field. I think he’s the classiest runner in the bunch and that he’ll be very tough to beat if he fires his usual shot.

RACE #8

The sister races of the Allied Forces is the Christiecat, and it features eight 3-year-old fillies (plus two main-track-only runners). I’m going three-deep in here, and I think this is a very competitive, wide-open race.

#9 HONEY PANTS is 2-for-2 over this course and returns to her home turf (pun absolutely intended) for this event. She was last seen running a competitive second in a stakes race at Woodbine, and that race didn’t really set up for her late kick. I think she’ll get more pace to chase here, and she’ll be the one they have to hold off late.

I’ll also use #5 CALDEE and #10 BYE BYE. The former cuts back to a sprint distance and won over this turf course back in May, while the latter came flying late to be beaten just a neck at this level last time out and took the Grade 3 Soaring Softly during the Belmont spring meet.

RACE #9

We finish with a tricky maiden claimer, and I’ll look to extract some value out of this sequence by going against the chalk. It’s not like #9 TELLAPERFECTTALE can’t win, but she wasn’t that much better than several of her rivals in that spot, and only one work since then hits me as a bit of a red flag. Given her likely price, I’ll try to beat her.

My top Pick is a hefty price. #5 MADAME ROSE is 0-for-16, which is a pretty big red flag, and her 20-1 odds reflect that. However, there isn’t a lot of early speed in this field, and she chased a solid pace against a better group last time out. In addition, she was second and third against two similar groups in the spring over this surface, and I think there’s a fair bit to like.

#2 BONANA FANNA FOE, #6 LITTLE MS SCARLET, and #8 KNOW IT ALL RED will also be on my ticket in the Friday finale. There isn’t a lot of form signed on, and I simply don’t think any runner in here should be a short price. If we can beat the chalk to finish things off, we should be in line for an excellent score.