Weekend Winners Club

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Friday, August 27, 2021.  Charles Town is running under the lights tonight, starting a stakes-packed card at 5PM ET.  Races include the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic, Grade 3 Oaks, and 6 other stakes races.  That’s 8 stakes races for an action packed evening that will last until 11PM ET.  Weather: cloudy.

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After early scratches, there are still 114 horses scheduled to run in 13 races, so the field sizes are mostly very solid in almost every race.  Let’s break down a few of the stakes races and point out some long shot specials.  First, you’ll want to look at today’s free Charles Town Grid to follow along.

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R12:  The Charles Town Classic G2 is the feature race tonight, with a field of 10 talented route-runners from around the country racing 9f for an $800k purse. Their collective last races out were run at 9 different tracks.

Art Collector, the ML favorite, was one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby last year after going undefeated in his preps.  He had 3 subpar stakes races before bouncing back to win the Alydar Stakes earlier this month for Mr. Mott.

Warrior’s Charge is the 2^nd ML choice and while he hasn’t actually won since the Razorback G3 in Feb.2020, he always competes and finished 2^nd in the Stephen Foster G2 in June for Brad Cox.

Sleepy Eyes Todd is listed at 6-1 and could do very well returning to the scene of his greatest achievement, which was winning this race last year.  I remember that well, as I predicted him to finish top 2 in that race at 10-1 in last year’s version of this article.  Somebody obviously read that precap and he wound up running away with it by 7 lengths at 5-2.  In his past 4, he was over his head in 3 G1’s and had a bad trip last out.

NY Traffic at 8-1 ML qualifies as the first real long shot special, although having said that, he will probably end up at 5-1 or less. With his frontrunning style and ability to stay on during the stretch, it may be that nobody keeps up with him.

Noble Drama is listed at 8-1 and keeps on competing ably.  He’s rattled off a couple handicap wins and has the top overall PF on the board.  And why not use the top LP in a 9f race?

Prediction:  8 1 7 6 2 3 4

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R11:  The Charles Town Oaks G2 has 10 3yo fillies competing at 7f for a $400k purse on the dirt track.  Again, these young lassies ran their last race at 9 different tracks around the country.  Most are stakes winners and all are stakes placed.

Caramel Swirl is the morning predictable morning line favorite at 5-2, but repeating her breakout performance last out in an allowance is doubtful.

Pauline’s Pearl (3-1) could be the post time favorite, coached by Asmussen and a Grade 3 winner at 8.5f cutting back to 7f is a good angle.  Did I mention she has top LP?

R Adios Jersey at 12-1 ML is undefeated in 4 races, winning her debut by 12 lengths and improving every race, including a stakes win last out.  The 5 month layoff is a concern but as a 3yo she probably also put on some muscle during that time and may improve again.  I doubt anyone can match her speed for 7f.

Street Lute also has some speed and wins a lot.  Her last 3 races at this distance were all stakes wins at Laurel.

Prediction:  8 1 3 6 2

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I’m not going to break down every race, but there are some great ML long shots in just about every race, such as Letmeno at 10-1 in race 10.  Keep in mind that a lot of people will be using the Grid tonight so the odds on all the great long shots could go down.

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As usual, you can get the Grid for all your favorite tracks and races right here.  Good luck!

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