The richest race of the day won't be taking place at Keeneland but instead at Charles Town Race & Slots with the $1 million Charles Town Classic. The Classic is an ungraded race but the large purse has drawn a full field of ten horses, including Awesome Gem and Pennsylvania and Ohio Derby winner Gone Astray.
I'm not going to pretend to know anything about Charles Town or how this particular track plays on a daily basis as I've never bet a CT race in my life. But just a cursory glance at the past performances indicates a field that has a lot of early speed and a race that appears to set up well for a horse coming from off the pace. That scenario would appear to favor Awesome Gem (5/2), but I'm a little concerned about this horse due to his sub-par efforts since winning the Hawthorne Gold Cup last October.
Gone Astray (3/1) probably needed that last race at Oaklawn and would be awfully tough to beat if he runs back to his form from two or three races back. Shug McGaughey will go with Robby Albarado in the irons instead of the usual Eddie Castro...Albarado coming to Charles Town for a chance to ride this horse? That's all I need to know.
Charles Town Classic
Charles Town
1 1/8 Miles
Purse: $1,000,000
Post time: 10:30 Eastern
Prg# |
PP |
Horse |
Jockey |
Trainer |
ML |
1 |
1 |
Fiddlers Afleet |
Hill C |
Hushion Michael E |
12/1 |
2 |
2 |
Gone Astray |
Albarado R J |
McGaughey III C R |
3/1 |
3 |
3 |
Encaustic |
Shepherd J |
Shuman Mark |
8/1 |
4 |
4 |
Awesome Gem |
Flores D R |
Dollase Craig |
5/2 |
5 |
5 |
Acting Zippy |
Thompson T J |
Bennett William D |
12/1 |
6 |
6 |
Understatement |
Cohen D |
Pletcher Todd A |
5/1 |
7 |
7 |
Indian Dance |
Garcia Luis |
Murray Lawrence E |
20/1 |
8 |
8 |
No Advantage |
Acosta J D |
Beattie Stephanie |
12/1 |
9 |
9 |
Researcher |
Perez L A |
Runco Jeff C |
9/2 |
10 |
10 |
Redding Colliery |
Napravnik A R |
McLaughlin Kiaran P |
15/1 |
11 |
AE |
Enriched |
Dunkelberger T L |
O'Neill Doug |
SCR |
12 |
AE |
Tizway |
Maragh R |
Bond Harold James |
SCR |
13 |
AE |
Wicked B. Havior |
Bravo J |
Tagg Barclay |
SCR |
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