Laurel Park: Spot plays and horses to watch, November 26
Edgar Prado smiles after Always Thinking won the Sensible Lady Turf Dash. Photo by Dottie Miller.
Gary Quill is taking a brief hiatus from his GQ Approach full-card picks and analysis. In his stead, we present daily spot plays and horses to watch. Good luck!
First post today 12:30 p.m. The late Pick 5 has a carryover of $3,324.39. The Super Hi 5 has no carryover. The Jackpot Rainbow Pick 6 has a carryover of $7,437.32. Nine races are on the card. Laurel Park is off the turf today.
- The fourth race is a nickel claimer going six furlongs on the main track. The favorite in here is #8 Pedro Cerrano (9-5), who’s scheduled to ship down from New York for trainer Ray Handal. But this one has red flags, not the least of which is this: Handal claimed him out of his last for $12,500 (after he’d shipped cross-country into David Jacobson’s barn), and while he didn’t run particularly well, the immediate drop to $5,000 here is just a touch suspicious. We’ll pass and try to beat him with a pair of local runners. #3 Humbolt Street (9-2) has something we ordinarily hate: a terrible record. He’s won just four of 33 career starts while often toiling, like here, towards the bottom of the ladder. But a closer look shows that his recent record is quite a bit better: 6-3-2-1. He couldn’t be in better form for a barn, that of Dale Capuano, having a big meet, and he steps up here with Jevian Toledo in the irons. Then there’s #2 Dukin’ With Dale (5-2) from the Claudio Gonzalez barn; Gonzalez is leading the meet in wins and this runner likewise enters off a win. Gonzalez will leg up young bug rider Franklin Ceballos, and the two of them are clicking one-third of the time.
TODAY’S FULL-CARD SELECTIONS
- Race 1 – 4-6-2-7
- Race 2 – 4-7-2-6
- Race 3 – 2-10-12-6
- Race 4 – 3-2-6-8
- Race 5 – 11-1a-4-6
- Race 6 – 2-8-3-5
- Race 7 – 11-6-2-15
- Race 8 – 8-4-1-6
- Race 9 – 12-6-8-7
- The featured eighth race is a third-level allowance going seven furlongs on the main track, and what an interesting group it’s attracted. The favorite here is #1 Sine Wave (5-2), a promising Grade 3-placed runner moving through her conditions for trainer Ben Perkins. She hasn’t raced since the beginning of September but has shown the ability to fire fresh previously and on best could be tough in here. But the horse we’re most interested in seeing is #8 Tin Type Gal (6-1). The four-year-old Tapit filly is a multiple Grade 3 winner on the turf and here will try the dirt for just the secodn time in her career, and the first since her debut, when going 5 1/2 furlongs in a race rained off the green. Despite her lack of experience on the main track, her breeding suggests she’ll handle it: Tapit has gotten more than a few good dirt runners, and her dam, Miss Shop, was a Grade 1 winner on the main track. Motion will leg up Feargal Lynch here; that duo has a positive ROI over a 96-race sample.
