Pick 3 of the Week: Thistledown Saturday, June 20

The signature day of racing at the Thistledown meeting is Saturday, with five stakes tilts highlighting the excellent 12-race card, capped by the $500,000 Ohio Derby (G3). I’ll try to pad my bankroll before the feature with the all-stakes Pick 3 that directly precedes it. 

Race 9 Wager

• $2 Pick 3: 3,7,8,9 with 4,5,6,10 with 1 ($32)

Race 9 – Cleveland Gold Cup S. 

Ohio-bred sophomores will travel 1 1/8 miles in the first part of the play, with nine set to go postward. #8 Water Into Wine (5-2) has earned his best pair of Brisnet Speed ratings in his two career route runs to date and is the leading choice, although I don’t feel that he is single. The Always Dreaming gelding comes off a big run on the oval on May 29 and a bullet half-mile move last weekend, and the bay will also get Jose Ortiz in the silks. 

Morning-line choice #3 Mark My Words (2-1), recent stakes heroine #7 R U Enticed (9-2), and game allowance hero #9 Leavetheninetynine (10-1), also merit respect in the opening leg.   

Race 10 – Classen Memorial S. 

Sizable cast of 11 fillies and mares will dash six dirt furlongs in the middle leg of the sequence. I feel that #6 Coloryoureggs (6-1) is the speed-of-the-speed in a race with a lot of ladies that like to be forwardly placed for Robert Cline, who has a pair of contenders in the field. The Birdrun four-year-old has compiled a consistently strong 10-4-4-2 mark on the oval and will improve in her second run of the season. I expect her to be right there late in hopes of earning her initial stakes tally under regular pilot Victor Fernandez. 

I will also include #4 Waves of Liberty (15-1), #5 Parlay (5-2), and defending champ #10 Authoritarian Girl (7-2). 

Race 11 – Lady Jacqueline S. 

A really nice cast of fillies and mares will vie in the 1 1/8-mile affair, including the horses that ran second and third in the tilt last season, but this race is all about #1 Standoutsensation (3-1) for me. The Take Charge Indy mare concluded 2025 with four consecutive wins, two of which were in stakes events, and while she is winless in three straight races, I feel she is a perfect fit in this spot. She comes in fresh with some solid morning drills leading up to her local bow, and the Kentucky-bred has speed from the rail to always be in range. Jose Ortiz riding adds to her appeal.