Santa Anita & Belmont

A lot of focus will be on Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby along with the undercard on Saturday. There is racing elsewhere, and we’ll take a look at a few spots.

At Santa Anita they have the Grade 3 Senorita. Island of Love comes in. off two troubled trips under Flavien Prat since coming to the states after racing in Italy. If she can avoid any trouble under new pilot Juan Hernandez she’ll be a handful and then some in here.

At Belmont they’ll run three stakes. It will be tough to get around the chalk in at the least two of them and maybe even all three. We’ll try and hope for the best.

In the Sheepshead Bay Chad Brown sends out Virginia Joy. She will be a short price. She will also be tough to get past. Maybe Luck Money can give her a tussle. She is fresh, likes Belmont and has run with this caliber and run well before. She’ll have to be at her best to handle Virginia Joy, and the favorite may need to run a subpar race, but we have seen it happen before. No free squares.

In the Fort Marcy I’ll go with the other and longer priced Chad Brown horse. Sacred Life has looked like he was sitting on a big race for a while. He has not really delivered it, but this is the best spot for him to do it in a while. He will be running late, never a bad thing on the grass or in any race for that matter.

Maybe Greatest Honour needed two to get back to where he was. The first race off the bench was one he surely needed, and he did improve a tad next out. Now he is third time back, and he has worked well for this start. There is not much pace in this small field and that is not ideal, but at his best he was this good if not better. Shug hasn’t given up.

We were hoping for some bigger fields in some of these spots. You have to play the hand you’re dealt. Often with all eyes on a big event you can find a hidden or overlooked gem or two elsewhere. It is always worth a try. Enjoy the races.