Caleb @CalebWVU

Race 9 – #9 Wendell Fong: With Saratoga once again being off the turf, I am only looking at the scheduled dirt races today. Race 9 is a very deep $50,000 claiming event with a ton of interesting contenders. I think Ray Handal holds all of the cards in this event as he sends out both Thinkaboutit and Wendell Fog. The former posted a big upset last out at this level at 20/1 and looks dangerous once again, but I’m electing to go with Wendell Fog at a better price. This horse has largely competed at high level allowance and low level stakes most of his career, but he’s had trouble finding the winners circle as of late. This feels like one of the softest spots he’s been entered in quite some while. Ray Handal does excellent work with horses first time in his barn (23% from last 26 starts), and he is one of the few trainers who routinely puts Katie Davis on live mounts (21% jockey/trainer last year). Wendell Fog may need a bit of pace help up front to set up his late kick, but I’m hoping the off track will offset his pace dependency, as he is 3/8 lifetime over sloppy tracks.

Josh @CherryDrank

Race 2 – #4 Accel Rose: Looking at the Optix plot for this race, there could be a bit of speed up front and I think this could set up nicely for an off-the-pace type. I will be using both the #4 Accel Rose and #7 Simple Sugar in this race, with the former being my top pick. Won a low-level claiming race at MTH last time out and is stepping up in class here while a lot of others are dropping. On both Bris and Optix, that last race is very competitive in this field. While he’s 1-21 to start the meet, Atras is 35% when repeating in a claiming race and 26% when winning the last race.

Mark @Two_Turns

Race 3 – #7 Western Lane: With the entire card coming off the grass, it lost much of its luster and prices may be very hard to find as some of the short priced favorites could be very tough. I’m hoping people gravitate towards the MTO’s in here and ignore Western Lane. This 4 year old daughter of Candy Ride only has one win, and it was on an off track at Aqueduct last fall. That race is by far the best of her career and she has Tomlinson figures which would make you think she should love this muddy surface. I’m hoping that Dylan keeps her close early and that she can get this longer distance which should be OK given her pedigree.