Loading ...May 31 2021
Santa Anita Memorial Day: Grade 1 Precap: Hollywood Gold Cup, Gamely, Shoemaker Mile
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Monday, May 31, 2021. Santa Anita has a big day of racing starting at 4PM Eastern or 1PM California time. Grade 1 racing includes the Hollywood Gold Cup, Gamely, and Shoemaker Mile, all with fields of 7 or less as is the norm nowadays. Let the Precapping begin. First get today’s Free Grid.
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The memory of the now defunct Hollywood Park lives on with the featured Gold Cup G1 which has a field of 7 talented horses competing for $300k, probably the lowest G1 purse of all time. My selections are chalk, chalk, and more chalk. It doesn’t look good for betting at all but I would try to include 1 2 5 7 in your verticals if possible.
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The Gamely G1 is also down to a field of 7 after scratches. Frontrunner Charmaine’s Mia started going two turns the last 2 races and still hasn’t been caught in the pair of G2’s at a mile. There’s not a whole lot of competing speed on paper but you still have to respect top late runner Red Lark which at 12-1 is the longest shot in the field.
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The Shoemaker Mile is down to 6 after scratches, led by another frontrunning favorite Smooth Like Strait at even money morning line. Whisper Not also looks good here but has low odds, and once again you have the top late runner Restrainedvengeance at 8-1 for the turf mile.
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There are 9 races on the card which begins at 4PM Eastern and the late Pick 4 will begin with Bob Baffert winning an optional claimer with one of his two 5yo’s which make up 40% of the short field.  The Jackpot 6 will carry over $260k into the day and should surpass $1 million.
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As always, you can get the Grid for all your favorite tracks and races every race day at this link.  It’s a great time to join with lots of good summer racing coming up including the Belmont Stakes on June 5.
