Floridian Stakes Final on Friday's Late Card at Mardi Gras on April 26th

The 7th race on the late card will produce the winner of this marathon series. Eight greyhounds will be vying against each other for the stakes title and $10,000. Morning line favorite at 5-2 is #5 Santa's Clifton, winner of his last two races in this series, both times from the 5 box. Can he do it again?

His brother, Santa's Ward, in the 4 box will be chasing him from a better position than he's had in his last two outings, where he was in the 7 and 8 boxes and still managed to get into the trifecta. In the 2 box, Casper Van Dien also gets a better post position than he did in his last two races, but will have to do a better job of carrying his early speed past the stretch if he wants to take this one.

Good Luck Sterling in the 3 box lost by a nose last time and might run back to the races where he won earlier in this series. He has the early and late speed to do it if he's in form and gets the break. Kiowa June Jax can run from the outside, but will have to pace herself to take her speed to the wire from the 7 box.

Noah's Ark in the 6 box and Slatex Zeus in the 8 box have both shown that they can win at this distance, as has HL's Dale in the 1 box, a good place to start from in a 770 yard race.

I have to go with Santa's Clifton to win this one, and will be using him in exotics with the 1, 4 and 7.

Also On Tap This Weekend

At Bluffs Run Greyhound Park the running of the $60K 3/8 Mile Derby Semi-Finals on Saturday.

Dubuque Greyhound Park opens their meet with the $2,000 Inaugural Stakes on Saturday.

Southland Park's Spring Futurity Stakes Semi-Finals will take place on Saturday evening.

Safe trips and good racing luck to all the runners. Remember that you can watch, wager and get your free programs for these tracks on Bet America.