Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Dearest has good chance to defeat heavy favorite
Upon initially examining the past performances for stakes around the country on Saturday, my inclination was that the Grade 2 Inside Information would not be one of the races in which I would try to target an overlaid contender. Then I changed my mind.
Although the favorite, Curlin’s Approval, has obvious merits – being in sharp form and having drawn seemingly clear of trouble on the outside – I don’t believe she will warrant the short price of even-money or less that she figures to be.
Curlin’s Approval is in this race in part because of a shortage of twoturn dirt stakes for fillies and mares at Gulfstream, not because it was long targeted by her connections. Once this race is over, they hope to stretch her back out to 1 1/16 miles for the Grade 1 La Troienne on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill on May 5.
Meanwhile, Dearest seems primed specifically for the Inside Information, and for that reason, she rates as my value-based choice as the probable second wagering choice. A pure sprinter with an affinity for Gulfstream, Dearest hasn’t run since winning the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl on Dec. 17, but that doesn’t faze me in the least.
Dearest excels racing fresh, having compiled a 3-for-4 record following layoffs, in addition to having won first out at Gulfstream Park West back in November 2015. She also hasn’t missed a beat in her training, breezing steadily since late January and firing bullets along the way at Gulfstream Park West.
Beyond her winning history off the shelf, there are other things to like about Dearest, notably her ability to sustain her speed. In winning the Sugar Swirl, she was asked to go after the leader, the speedy Stonetastic, and, after running her into defeat, still had enough to last. And though that race was six furlongs, one furlong shorter than the Inside Information, she is just as effective at seven-eighths, having gone 2 for 2 at the distance.
Hashtag Alex pick in Private Terms
My other stakes plays on Saturday both come at Laurel Park, beginning with the Private Terms, which goes as the ninth race on the 11-race card. There, I like a new shooter to Laurel in Parx shipper Hashtag Alex.
A steadily improving 3-year-old, he comes off a dominant allowance score Feb. 28 at Parx in which he earned a 75 Beyer Speed Figure, a number not far off the customary figures of expected favorite O Dionysus. And as promising as that race was on figures, it was even better from a class standpoint, with Hashtag Alex manhandling a Todd Pletcher-trained colt in Win With Pride who was 3-5 after a pair of fourths in graded stakes at Aqueduct.
The Feb. 28 race was run much like a match race, with Win With Pride and Hashtag Alex racing as a team for six to seven furlongs of the one-mile event before Hashtag Alex pulled away to score by five lengths.
With more speed and a better draw than O Dionysus, look for Hashtag Alex to get the better trip of the two, and the others in the race just don’t appear to be capable of upsetting the top duo.
Bodhisattva too sharp to ignore
The Harrison E. Johnson Memorial, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race in which the frontrunning Matt King Coal looms a heavy favorite, closes out Laurel’s card. But with him drawing the far-outside post and catching a speedy group for a long route, I will take a chance to beat him with the late-running Bodhisattva.
Though my choice can go through periods of falling in and out of form, Bodhisattva is very good when at his best. And he seems to be at his peak after struggling over the second half of 2016.
He has a runner-up finish and a victory in two starts this year, both at Laurel, with the victory coming at 1 1/8 miles in another fast-paced contest.
Beyond an anticipated hot pace, Matt King Coal could prove vulnerable at the distance. He faded to fourth in the Wood Memorial last year in his one attempt at 1 1/8 miles, and that was a below-average renewal of the Wood, with Outwork narrowly winning over Trojan Nation, a maiden at the time and now just 1 for 12.