By Shawn Rychling
With all the chilly weather it’s hard to believe it, but the long Aqueduct meet is starting to wind down. After Friday we have just seven racing days left before NYRA closes up shop and heads slightly southeast to Belmont Park for opening day on Friday, April 27.
Speaking of the cold weather, don’t look now, but we may hit 70 degrees the next two days which is a sure sign of spring as was the Wood Memorial last Saturday, the final New York prep for the Kentucky Derby. Todd Pletcher came north from Florida with Vino Rosso who improved on the Tampa Derby and Stephen F Davis efforts to win by three convincing lengths and punch his ticket to Louisville. Good Magic and Justify won their Derby preps last week as well and we’ll take a closer look at the race in the weeks to come in this space.
As for this week, here’s a look at NYRA’s 50-cent Pick 5 which includes the @NYHotList Pick 3 Special in races 1 through 3.
1st race – (3) Flipped ran out of gas after a wide journey last time and we like the claim by barn that can win right out of the box. (5) Buss the Bell enters off a career-best effort. (4) Hokulea may threaten in first try vs. claimers. (2) Trinni Juice has been better last three starts and gets in very light here.
2nd race – (4) Tizzelle looks like the one to beat off those recent speed figures. (6) House of Dixie and (7) Icespire are a coin flip for Chad Brown who wins 22 percent of the time with horses making first start on this side of the Atlantic. (2) Jaunt enters off a career-best race and Shug is off to good start on his return to the north.
3rd race – (5) Not Taken loves the Big A turf as evidenced by the two November races, and we’ll just draw a big red line through her last race. (2) My Impression is the horse to beat off six straight 90-plus speed figures. (3) Uni has been stellar in graded stakes. We hit the all button for the pick 3 in this spot and we plan to work all five horses into this play.
4th race – (6) H Man likes to run at the Big A and forward move from last two starts may be enough to win this one. (5) Prophet’s Cat came back from the freshening with a pair of decent efforts and should be sharp here third off. (1) Gorelli owns best, last-race speed figure. (4) Rock Doc figures to be sharper second off a layoff.
5th race – (1) Battle of Blenheim has the top connections and forward move may be enough to win. (5) Attribute has been a new horse since Gargan took the reins and is a threat off those last four attempts. (2) Kulin Rock has similar numbers to our top pick. (3) Mr. Dougie Fresh has hit the board in 4 of last 5 starts and enters off career-best speed figure.
The Grid:
A B C
Race 1 3 4, 5 2
Race 2 4 6, 7 2
Race 3 2, 3 1 4, 5
Race 4 5, 6 x 1, 4
Race 5 1 2, 4 3
Best of luck. Find out how to get all our Hot List analysis at Interbets.com.