Race Preview: Eclipse Stakes - Woodbine, May 12, 2013

First things first, happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers across the world. Now on to the handicapping.

The feature race on Sunday at Woodbine is the Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes for four-year-olds and upward going eight and one-half furlongs on the main Polytrack. The morning line favorite for the race is the gelding Delegation.

Delegation is a solid 1-2 on the morning line looking for his fifth win in five starts at Woodbine. The Speightstown gelding has won on the dirt, turf and synthetics making him a horse anyone would want in the barn. The favorite makes his own pace on the lead and will be tough to run down. He looks like a single in the late pick-4, which starts in race seven.

In the other legs of the pick-4, things aren't as easy.

Race seven is a wide open sprint for $10,000 claimers with five horses between 5-2 and 8-1 on the morning line. We Been Spotted, not exactly grammatically the best, could try to steal it from the rail if ready to run off the layoff, but the first leg picks are No Exchanges and Ben's Best Bet.

Run to Bank is going to be favored in race nine with Bear's Chill, Hemlock Channel and Consolidator Joe the principles to upset.

In the finale most will use Flower Exchange, Guppy Smuggler, Tapia and I'm Not Afraid, but contention runs deep. Several of the long shots are coming off of long layoffs while the favorite ran a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps double up with the favorites and spread on one ticket.

Of course you could always play against Delegation and sit back and watch the winnings get passed on to you.

First post on Sunday is 1:00 ET with the pick 4 scheduled for 3:57.