10 go to the gate in Saturday’s $300,000 Mother Goose at Belmont Park (photo credit: © Cheryl Quigley | Dreamstime.com)
A field of 10 will line up in Saturday’s $300,000 Mother Goose (G1) at Belmont Park and with just one graded stakes winner in the field, Munasara could pull off the upset in her stakes debut.
Include Betty is the lone graded stakes winner in the field, taking the Fantasy (G3) at Oaklawn Park back in April but has lost twice since. Several others in the field appear on the verge of winning a graded stake, including Eskenformoney, Wonder Gal and Danessa Deluxe, who are all graded takes placed.
The Kiaran McLaughlin trained Munasara is making her stakes debut and the well bred filly looks as if she has a bright future, as does the Tony Dutrow trained Embellish the Lace, who won her last two starts by a combined 24 lengths.
The Mother Goose goes off as the ninth race on the 10-race card with a post time of 5:28 ET
There are four graded stakes on tap at Santa Anita on Saturday including the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1), which is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge ‘Win and You’re In” race for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
A field of 11 will line up led by Californian (G2) winner Catch a Flight, who has now won three of his five starts since landing with the Richard Mandella barn after shipping in from Brazil. The five-year-old is the 5-2 morning line favorite.
Trainer Bob Baffert will send out Hoppertunity (7-2), who was third in the Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) at Churchill Downs in his last outing. The colt has a couple of wins over the Santa Anita main track including the San Pasqual (G3) in January.
Also at 7-2 in the speedy Moreno, who was the runner up in the Californian after upsetting the Charles Town Classic (G2) at 7-1 in his previous outing. The Eric Guillot trainee is listed at 20-1 in early wagering for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The supporting features on Saturday’s Santa Anita card are the $100,000 Senorita (G3), the $300,000 Triple Bend (G1) and the $200,000 Royal Heroine (G2).
My Best Plays Report for Saturday will include my strongest plays from Belmont Park and Santa Anita including all of the stakes action.
Let’s head out to Belmont Park for Saturday’s featured race of the day:
Belmont Park Race 9 The Mother Goose (G1) Post time 5:28 ET
4 Munasara 10-1
9 Eskenformoney 4-1
1 Embellish the Lace 7-2
2 Include Betty 5-1
Munsara is perfect in two career starts, breaking her maiden in her debut at Gulfstream Park going seven furlongs and then beating Alw-1 optional claimers last out over the main track here going a mile. The effort was flattered when the runner up So You Say came back to beat Alw-1 foe sin her next outing on June 17 with a 98 Beyer Speed Figure. This gal has a nice pedigree, by Bernardini out of the stakes winner Lahudood ($1.69 million).
Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, this filly still looks as if she has a ton of upside and John Velazquez sticks. The jockey has won the Mother Goose a record six times including three of the last five editions. Decent value if this filly goes off near her 10-1 morning line.
Eskenformoney was off a beat slow in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and ran into some traffic troubles, getting bumped around and getting caught in traffic in the stretch. She ran well at Gulfstream Park two and three back in a runner up finish in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) and a close up third in the Davona Dale (G2).
A clean trip makes her a major threat in this spot for the Todd Pletcher barn. The trainer has won this race four times, the last coming in 2011 with Buster’s Ready.
Embellish the Lace ran huge last out to beat Alw-1 optional claimers in her first start against winners and first go off a 5 ½ month layoff. She took the field at Pimlico gate to wire to win by 13 ¾ lengths. She broke her maiden two back at Philly by 10 ¼ lengths.
The Tony Dutrow trainee owns the top last out speed fig and has solid early and mid pace numbers. She gets the class test today but looks up for it.
Wagering:
WIN: Munasara to win at 5-1 or better.
EXACTA: 4,9 / 1,2,4,9
TRIFECTA: 4,9 / 1,2,4,9 / 1,2,4,9,10
Road to the Breeders’ Cup Package
Get Michael’s Best Plays Report each Saturday and Sunday including all of the U.S. based Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” races from now to Oct. 8 and Michael Dempsey’s 2-Day Breeders’ Cup Report. Michael’s two day Breeders’ Cup Report includes his selections, analysis, fair odds line, and wagering recommendations for every race on the two-day championship event from Keeneland on Oct. 30-31.
