How to bet the Eddie Logan Stakes

A total of seven talented sophomores will travel one mile on the Santa Anita green in Thursday’s $100,000 Eddie Logan S. Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) runner-up #2 Stark Contrast (7-5) bagged the Zuma Beach S. (G3) two back in his lone previous run on the local green and gets top billing in the contest. Trained by Michael McCarthy, the bay son of Caravaggio has been very good in all three lifetime runs on the grass, and while he went postward at odds of 58-1 at Del Mar most recently, I don’t feel like the colt was a fluke at all. 

Eddie Logan Wagers

• $4 superfecta 2 with 4,5 with 4,5 with all ($32)
• $2 superfecta 2 with 4,5 with all with 4,5 ($16)

Stark Contrast has improved his Brisnet Speed rating with each lifetime appearance and has posted a handful of seemingly good morning drills in advance of Thursday. The Amerman homebred will stalk the early action in a race without much early foot and take command in the lane with regular pilot Kimura on board. 

California-bred #4 Unrivaled Time (6-1) was unplaced in his debut offering at Del Mar in August but has come home victorious in a pair of subsequent tallies, led by a triumph in a Grade 3 event in his latest venture. The Leonard Powell pupil showed an affinity for Santa Anita when driving home a sharp, 4 1/2-length maiden victor on this surface two back, and he is another contender with improving Brisnet Speed ratings in each run to date. The bay son of fine turf influence, Not This Time, will settle into the second flight on the backside prior to being asked for his closing burst with Diego Herrera in the stirrups. 

Bob Baffert’s well-bred #5 Plutarch (2-1) is another major threat in the heat and exits a dominant maiden win at Del Mar. The son of Into Mischief out of the superb Stellar Wind placed in his two stakes tries on the grass last campaign and has never run a bad one in his five-race career leading up to this tilt. I do have concerns that the deep closing colt will not have a fast pace to aid his running style, but he has shown too much potential to ignore in the race, with Juan Hernandez inheriting the mount.