Gold Cup Day Open Thread

A great day of racing is carded today nationwide, with graded stakes stretching from Belmont to Churchill to Arlington to Santa Anita and even including Prairie Meadows in between. On the slate today is :

• Churchill Downs: G3 Bashford Manor and the (Dan-less) G2 Firecracker Handicap
• Belmont: G1 Mother Goose and the G2 New York
• Arlington: G3 Chicago Handicap
• Santa Anita: G2 Royal Heroine, the G1 Triple Bend, the G3 Senorita, and the second reprisal of the G1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita.
• Prairie Meadows: The G3 Iowa Oaks, Iowa Derby, and Cornhusker

So my take (which you should most definitely ignore)

Mother Goose: There's a reason NYRA cancelled show wagering in this 6 horse field. Untapable should win for fun. But Princess Violet looks like an interesting price, but is not a threat to beat the best 3 year old in the country.

Bashford Manor: This race features a very promising juvenile in Governmentshutdown who overcame a ton of trouble  in his last out but still won by daylight. However, these are babies, so I'm looking for a price. I'm going to try to find a price and I think the 6-Lucky Player looks like he can make some noise. He's first time lasix and gets Leparoux, and at 6/1 I'll take a shot.

Firecracker: I'm picking Wise Dan to come from the farm and win this one. But this does look to have plenty of pace, so I'll go with 4-Nikki's Sandcastle. I doubt he stays at 6/1 as he is on the ML, but that price would be an absolute gift.

New York: I'm just watching this race since the two favorites, Tannery and Riposte look much the best with my preference going to Riposte. But the 5 might be a price to play underneath.

Chicago: I am all over the 2-My Option here. When handicapping on the poly I MUST see good poly form in the past and preferably at the distance. Go back to 19 October and you see a 7f great performance in the Raven Run at Keeneland by this filly. This field looks wide, wide open, so at 6/1 I'll run to the window to play this filly.

Royal Heroine: 2nd time Gary Stevens is a huge angle and I'm really trying to beat Parranda, so I'm going with 3-Wishing Gate. The pace should be ok for her and I actually liked her Matriarch where she faced much better than here.

Triple Bend: I'm just watching this one too, since all I can see is chalk winning here.

Senorita: Rovenna looks really good, but this is a significant class jump from Cal bred company. I think 7-Famous Alice wants the firm turf she's going to get, has Gary Stevens, and her running style should definitely put her in the running for the prize.

Gold Cup: I'm taking a major swing here. I'm always against Dude since if he gets challenged up front he almost can't win. So I'm going with 6-Majestic Harbor. This brother of Danza should get a good setup in front of him to make a run at and I'm going to play him over the 2, 3, and 4 in an EX. Just looking for a big price.

Iowa Oaks: Sugar Shock, no question about it.

Iowa Derby: LOVE Vicar's in Trouble.

Cornhusker: All chalk here. 6-Ground Transport over 8-Golden Ticket. Ground Transport, given a distance he likes, looks much better, but Golden Ticket is a game dude, so don't count him out.

Stealing the bossman's tagline, This is your open thread.