In Focus: Wagering Laurel’s New Year’s Eve stakes

by Gary Quill

Saturday’s Laurel Park card features five stakes, two for juveniles, two for older runners, and the Jennings for Maryland-breds.

The two two-year-old stakes are of particular interest.  The Gin Talking, for fillies, is the race in which a certain runner named Cathryn Sophia burst on the scene last year, winning off by 16 lengths in her first try against stakes rivals.  All she did after that was win the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks this past May, as well as two other graded events.  Her trainer, John Servis, is set to ship the favorite down for this race, too, in the form of recent maiden winner Ms. Locust Point.

And the Marylander, for the boys, has come up awfully tough this year.  Stakes winners Undulated and O Dionysus are sure to get long looks from bettors — but the morning line favorite is impressive debut winner Irish War Cry, for trainer Graham Motion.

How to wager?

Fortunately, we have the answers in our In Focus: New Year’s Eve Stakes which features top four selections, plus horse-by-horse analysis of every horse in all five stakes.

(In the document below, you can use the “pop-out” button to call up a printable version of the document.)