How to play the Pick 4

Fans of turf racing and multi-race wagers get the best of both worlds with the late Pick 4 at Laurel on Saturday, with the final four races that make up the Pick-4 sequence all offering large fields of horses racing on the grass. Here’s a look at the races that make up the wager.

Race 8, The Dahlia

One horse holds a clear advantage in this race, a mile turf race for fillies and mares, with that entrant being Cambodia (8). She kept fine company in ungraded races at Fair Grounds this winter, running competitively against the likes of Believe in Bertie and Kitten’s Roar, while earning lofty Beyer Speed Figures in the upper 90s. So the advice is to single her.

Race 9, Maiden Special Weight

Again the preference is to single – in this case, West Coast Bias (6). Twice on the board in as many starts, she rallied strongly going this race’s distance of 5 ½ furlongs at Fair Grounds over the winter in her first start of 2017, and she figures to move forward off the race. She further benefits from catching inexperienced, unaccomplished rivals.

Race 10, The Henry S. Clark

Rose Briar (7) is hard to fault on form, having performed at a high level in stakes down in Florida in early winter, but with him not having started since a close fifth on Jan. 14, I’m inclined to use a couple other horses in Synchrony (10) and Ascend (8). The former ran well to overcome a troubled trip to win his turf debut and now steps up from a second-level allowance, and the latter is a horse that has been ultra consistent and fast, though out of action since October.

Race 11, $7,500 claiming

Time to spread…this low-end claimer on the grass seems a scramble, with many having shaky form or moving from dirt to turf after spending the winter running on dirt, not their preferred surface. I recommend using seven horses in Workerbee (11), Kay War (5), Unspoken (7), Cursive (2), Shifra Magician (4), Vale Ridge (8), and Angel of Love (10). They’re listed in preferential order, but there is very little separating the first through seventh selections.