Searching For Value in the Southwest Stakes

J. Scott

This Saturday’s Derby Prep at Oaklawn Park will be a two horse battle between Breeders Cup Juvenile Winner, Essential Quality and fourth place finisher, Jackie’s Warrior.

Essential Quality seems slightly better placed to take this one after a pristine record as a two-year-old and white-hot training by Brad Cox. Essential Quality’s form in the Southwest Stakes may well be a preview of a Kentucky Derby front runner.

Jackie’s Warrior will be close contender to Essential Quality after an aggressive two-year-old campaign and a career best 101 Beyer in the Champagne Stakes. 

Jackie’s Warrior may appear over matched until you do a deep-read of the race chart. The colt raced two-wide with Essential Quality and was neck and neck until the final furlong, then ran out of steam and dropped to fourth, completing the Superfecta. After three months of rest, may be fresh enough to surpass Essential Quality in their rematch today.

But me I look for value, and although these two will be battling it out for the top spot, there is another contender that provides not only value, but an interesting outsiders possibility of getting in the money for a sweet payoff. 

Woodhouse is currently sitting at 8/1 and is one of the two most recently raced in this group, coming in 3rd after being stuck in traffic in his last start. 

Breaking his Maiden in a four-wide drive to victory, Woodhouse seems like he has the innate ability to overcome adversity and the will to win. Woodhouse by Speightstown is entering his third race in the form cycle and the Southwest Stakes could be a big move forward for the young colt. 

If Woodhouse can get up in front of Jackie’s Warrior or even Essential Quality, it is going to be a good day for your wallet.

I will take the chance Woodhouse gets involved for at least a taste.

Good Luck!

Essential Quality

Jackies Warrior w/ Woodhouse

Jackies Warrior w/ Woodhouse

Both ways. 

The Southwest (G3)

Preakness Play by Play

Wow I'm not sure what time it is there, but here it's pretty damn early!
I decided to skip the Pick 5 after looking at past years pay outs and concentrate on the late Pick 4's, and inter race exotics.

Here's my action so far, I'll exclude the losing tickets for now (I'll post total action later)
Race#8
$2 Superfecta 5,7w/3,5,6,7w/3,5,6,7w/3,5,6,7 ($24) = +$1,304
.10 SFBX 3,5,6,7 ($2.40) = +$64.01
$10 Ex 5 W/6,7 ($20) = +$439

this is just the beginning.....

Ticket Maker App From Daily Racing Form

Just like they say, "There's an App for that." Well guess what they ain't kidding.

I just downloaded the new Ticket Maker App for my Iphone from that goddamn genius and personal hero of mine Steven Crist of The Daily Racing Form, and man I think it's going to make my next day of handicapping a WHOLE lot easier.

So lemme tell you how it works, you know all those chicken scratch scribblings you see me doing, after I've dissected that days races and I'm trying to put together my betting ticket? YEAH THIS DOES IT FOR ME!
I just plug in the possible contenders as "A's, B's, C's or X's", pick the kind of wager I want to make, (of course it does multi-race wagers), MY BUDGET, your betting unit, and it formulates all of your possible ticket combo's for you!

GOD IT RULES! Not only does it save me time, which is vital, but it also makes it easy to save tickets, email them to yourself (or your trusty parlay partners), AND GIVES YOU A CALL OUT SCREEN SO YOU CAN JUST GO TO THE WINDOW AND READ IT OFF TO THE TELLER! I swear to god if this App could put ice and bourbon in a glass and hand it to me I'd probably marry it.

So anyway, it's definitely not as life changing as the first time I saw Lisa Hutchins jog across the soccer field in her pink angora sweater back in 5th grade.....but it's up there.

Check it out race fans:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ticketmaker/id367643869?mt=8

There is also a version you can use just on your home computer: http://www.drf.com/formulator/ticketmaker.html

That's all I got,
raychihasspoken