To be honest, none of the three of us have had much luck at Saratoga to start the meet. I think this little contest we’re doing between ourselves illustrates that pretty well with only Caleb having any winners paying more than $10. Luckily, we are only two weeks into the meet and there’s plenty of time to turn this ship around.

Caleb @CalebWVU

Race 5 – #2 Don’t Let Me Down: The foundation of most of my spot plays generally tends to be races where I don’t care for the likely favorites, and Saratoga Race 5 fits the bill. St. Joe Louis goes out again for Chad Brown, but he’s been beaten as the chalk 8 races in a row, constantly settling for second, so he’s not for me. Pletcher sends out a more reasonable choice in Quality G. This gelding ran well against listed stakes company at Monmouth last year, but the big layoff coupled with the massive drop in for a tag following a poor race raises some red flags. I’m electing to go with #2 Don’t Let Me Down. He has spent most of his career sprinting around one turn, but I think that being by Tourist he should appreciate a stretch-out to a route distance. He ran a fantastic race three back in his first start for Chris Englehart before being washed off the turf in his subsequent race. It may appear on paper that he didn’t do much running last out, but I think that is deceiving. That June 24 race at Belmont was dominated on the front end, with the top four horses at the first call finishing 1-2-3-4. Additionally, runners have come out of that race to do well, as three of the four runbacks won their next start, and the lone runner who did not finished third to another rival from this race. I think he exits a key race and will improve on the stretch out against a field of suspect quality today, and I think you get every bit of that 12/1 morning line.

Josh @CherryDrank

Race 7 – #6 Chewing Gum: In my opinion, Chewing Gum has been a little unlucky the last few starts having run a bunch of turf sprints devoid of speed. This race looks to set up with a bit more pace than the last few he’s been in. He is a big ol’ Q4 square on Optix and looks to be the best late pace in the race that should set up for an off-the-pace runner. Has back races fast enough to win and Bill Mott is 21% off the long layoff. With the #8 Arrest Me Red likely getting bet off the board and the other short price #2 Our Shot maybe being a pace casualty, Chewing Gum could surprise at 10-1 ML.

Mark @Two_Turns

Race 10 – #7 Control Alt Delete: On a day where I had a rough time coming up with a strong opinion it really felt like the time to take a price flier. Control Alt Delete’s race was over in debut about 3 jumps from the gate when the 3-year-old gelding was absolutely mugged, shuffled back and then never involved. Jeremiah Englehart is a low percentage on debut trainer who fires at a very high percentage 2nd time out and picks up JJ while stretching out to a better distance for this son of Cloud Computing. In a race where most of the short priced horses have shown they don’t want to get their photo taken, Control Alt Delete seems to be the fresh face ready to blow up the tote board.