Double-Digit Prices Across The Board

We were in play with the features this week but this time of the season our major accomplishments are not the races that make headlines. Indeed, it’s the results that impress the bettors more than the insiders.

Check out the horses-to-watch list (H2W) below for the past weekend. There are no typos in the results and that brings up a point of emphasis regarding across-the-board wagering. Again this week we would up with a few seconds in races with horses that were dismissed by the public; most of them were double-digit win odds. Peruse the list before you read the rest of this, focusing on “Seconds.”

Six of the eight place horses produced strong across-the-board returns. Two of them contributed to exactas with the public choice. Consider why we publish place-and-show prices with the same eye for profits you probably enjoy in our “suggested contenders” throughout the season. When the H2W list offers horses going off with double-digit-promising win prices, they do better than when list horses become public choices. This means prices as witnessed below that have not been uncommon in the history of our selections.

The top winner this week paid $36.00. But look at the prices of the first few horses that finished second. And look at the prices of the first two horses that finished third. All of those returns are better than the five winners that followed the $36.00 topper. This is important food for thought when working your TwinSpires account bankrolls. Across-the-board bets from our blogs are strong elements for profit and with public choices they boost exacta prices severely.

On Friday, Feb. 27, we endorsed the most important element of the Meadows’ Early Pick 3, that being the winner in the trio that paid the most. The $61.40 payoff was that much due to Woody Hanover ($9.80, $4.60, $3.20), who took the second leg. In the first leg, another example of strong seconds was displayed as Prima Dragon, one of two we suggested to use in your ticket, was second at 20-1, offering place-and-show prices of $12.40 and $8.00 respectively. Our third-leg choice was 7-2 Maddys Dolly, which is also pertinent to the issue, finishing second ($4.40, $4.40 ok).

At the Meadowlands in the winter finals, we were second with 3-1 Witch Dali ($4.40, $4.20), losing to a 4-1 shot in the Burning Point. We came in third in the Somsam with Bettorever ($5.00) at 19-1. Our 9-1 choice in the Charles Singer, Walk The Walk, was ninth to the winner, the favorite.

Both of our feature-race contenders finished fifth, including Daquiri Seelster (20-1)  at Western Fair and Simply Business (7-1) at Yonkers.

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H2W RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas are included when a H2W horse finishing second completes the result with a race favorite or the first two finishers making up the exacta are H2W horses (an asterisk appears when both horses were listed to complete the exacta). This week, there were 57 active horses.

Winners

Hot Cycle, $36.00, $9.00, $3.80, Northville
Charmbro Orbit, $6.60, $4.10, $2.20, Flamboro
Cultured Pearl, $4.00, $2.40, $2.10, Freehold
Dash N, $3.70, $2.50, $2.50 ok, Buffalo
Best Friends Always, $3.60, $2.50, $2.10, Monticello
Capozzo, $3.60, $2.60, $2.40, Meadowlands

Seconds

Cantholdmebackmack, $19.80, $10.40, Maywood
La Madawna DeRosa, $11.00, $6.20, Cal Expo
Taruke, $7.00, $3.80 (Exacta $22.40), Maywood
Flight Seelster, $6.20, $4.00, Northfield
Mach Stockn Barrel, $5.50, $3.90, Buffalo
Pontiac Luck, $4.20, $2.30 (Exacta $11.00), Pompano
Sir Global Z Tam, $3.20, $2.40, Dover
Elite, $2.70, $2.50, Buffalo
Misspanderosajones, $2.60, $3.20 ok (Exacta $10.80), Maywood

Thirds

Celtic Thunder, $14.20, Dover
Ballistic Tip, $8.00, Meadows
Nobel Logans Lou, $4.60, Monticello
Caramel Chinno, $3.80, Northfield
Bakken, $3.70, Buffalo
Defective Sham, $3.40, Miami
Tune In, $3.20, Meadows
Playa Del Rylee, $2.80, Northfield
Some Heart Throb, $2.20, Maywood

News & Notes

Saratoga Harness is in gear starting March 1. The spring schedule offers racing Fridays and Saturdays at 6:45 p.m. and Sundays at 12:45 p.m. Thursday cards have been moved to a 4 p.m. post. The horsemen will be competing for purses of over $16 million with average purses of $93,000 every night. For 2015, the seventh annual Joe Gerrity, Jr. Memorial Pace is a single dash for $275,000 on July 25. This year’s event expects to draw the best pacers in the northeast. The popular New York Sire Stakes program will return on Thursday, June 4.

 Monticello Raceway announced a post time change beginning on Monday, March 1. That Monday Monticello will change its first-race post time to 12:50 p.m. due to Daylight Savings Time, which starts on March 8. The racing schedule will remain its usual Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday format.

One of Illinois’ leading harness drivers for the past 30-plus years, Dave Magee, hanged his tack up after his drives Saturday night, Feb. 28, at Balmoral Park. He has almost 12,000 victories and more than $101 million in earnings and is one of only 17 drivers in the history of the sport to eclipse the $100-million mark in earnings and is the only Illinois-based driver to go over $100 million in that category. Magee has had 10 seasons with $2-million-plus in earnings, 13 seasons with $3 million and a trio of $4-million seasons. He won 630 races in 1994, which led all drivers in North America. He has also posted an amazing 36 straight seasons with more than $1 million in earnings and 38 straight seasons of 100 wins or more. Magee, 61, becomes a state steward at Hoosier Park.

Miami Valley Raceway announced the addition of nine more late-closing events in their March and April racing calendar. The Legends Series is named in memory of a deceased horseperson who made major long-term contributions to harness horse racing in southwest Ohio. A five-member committee from over 50 nominations received from current horsemen and fan selected the names. Honored with a series in their memory will be George Owens, Omar Hiteman, Robert J. Brown, Herb Coven, Jr., George Williams, Ray Paver, Sr., Dr. Don Mossbarger, Tom Tharps and Dr. Dan Farwick. The series will spotlight relatively green pacers (divided by sex) and trotters that are either non-winners of two pari-mutuel races or $15,000 lifetime, non-winners of four pari-mutuel races or $30,000 lifetime, or non-winners of six pari-mutuel races or $50,000 lifetime as of March 1, 2015.

Extraordinary Extras

Indulge in many standardbred topics at my Hoof Beats blog titled Vast Performances.

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

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