Price Talk coming off career-best race

The two best races this weekend come in Hong Kong – where superstar Golden Sixty makes his first start of the season – and Japan, which has the Group 1 Mile Championship. Closer to home, there’s a grand total of five unrestricted stakes in all of North America, Saturday and Sunday combined. A shallow pool, but perhaps some value swimming around.

Red Smith

Serve the King is listed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite in this 11-furlong turf contest, which should be run over decent ground considering December is approaching – decent, but still a late-fall course not to everyone’s liking.

Serve the King should go off lower than his 3-1 morning line, but maybe line-maker David Aragona is properly pricing the mild skepticism that makes me want to try and beat this favorite. Granted, Serve the King has the profile of an improving, lightly raced horse – unless you believe he has no more room to improve and might struggle to maintain the peak he hit in his last two starts. All credit for finishing second in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic last out, but it was a tepid second, to be sure, and thirdplace Gufo, who had moved prematurely, subsequently was a non-factor in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, as, for that matter, was Joe Hirsch Turf Classic winner, Rockemperor.

Speaking of the BC Turf, Soldier Rising’s second-place finish in the Jockey Club Invitational took on greater luster when that race’s winner, Yibir, flew home to win the Turf, and you could make a case that Soldier Rising’s most recent race, the Hill Prince, was just too short for him at nine furlongs. I’d like to speak more about the way Soldier Rising finished that start, but the pan shot of the replay is so tight that the colt is out of the frame and you can’t see any of his final furlong – frustrating.

Javier Castellano rode three last-out winners entered in the Red Smith and winds up on Shamrocket for trainer Todd Pletcher, but I’m siding with one of the winners Castellano gets off, Price Talk, who comfortably beat Shamrocket when they met roughly two months ago.

That was Sept. 25, and I like that trainer Tony Dutrow, who dropped a $50,000 claim for this horse in August, has given Price Talk some time while aiming for this stakes spot. That says Dutrow believes Price Talk’s last out, where he hit a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure, was for real, and I concur.

Still just 4, this gelding has shown talent from the start but debuted for a claiming tag and looks like a horse who has battled some physical issues that he might be outgrowing or overcoming. Price Talk never has raced beyond 1 1/8 miles but his sire, Kitten’s Joy, is a strong stamina source, and his dam is a sister to Juniper Pass, who won the San Juan Capistrano over 1 3/4 miles.

Tide of the Sea and Channel Cat should supply the pace and Price Talk, stretching out, should race in the second flight, getting first run on the deeper closers.

Chilukki

This is real hodgepodge of older fillies and mares, six of whom are seeking a first graded-stakes victory. The two graded winners are Sally’s Curlin, who captured this very race two years ago, and Obligatory, the 5-2 morning-line favorite who won the Eight Belles at Churchill Downs this past spring. Obligatory performed dully last out at Keeneland and has been inconsistent, and I’m happy to play against her at the price.

Let’s go with She Can’t Sing, who showed her fondness for a fast Churchill fall dirt track as far back as October 2019, when she won her maiden under those circumstances by more than seven lengths. She Can’t Sing at age 4 has made 23 starts, a robust horse who doesn’t need to regress off her careerbest performance Oct. 2, another Churchill fast-dirt race. Trainer Chris Block has given She Can’t Sing ample recovery time and five Hawthorne workouts, and if she’s not on the early lead, she’ll sit a nice trip saving ground right behind the frontrunners.

Jean Lafitte

Trainer Brad Cox the last five years in Delta Downs stakes is 8-6-2-0, so going against Kaely’s Brother, who figures oddson here, might be folly. But Kaely’s Brother’s dam and siblings were sprinters, and the presence of Dancin With Angels could make it tough for the chalk to stay this mile.

Rail-drawn Un Ojo’s Keeneland debut (where he finished far behind Kaely) can be ignored, as this strapping, route-bred gelding scored a visually impressive Delta maiden win last out. He can improve off that and should love the added distance.