Pick 4 of the Week: Fair Grounds Saturday, Jan. 17

The Pick 4 of the Week comes from Fair Grounds on Saturday, and I will attack the middle of the three individual four-race plays that are offered on the excellent 13-race card. 

Race 6 Wager

• 50-cent Pick 4: 2,3,5,6,10 with 3,4,9 with 2,5,7,12 with 6,8 ($60)

Race 6 – Maiden Special Weight

An overflow field of 13 sophomores are entered to dash six panels on the main oval in the opening leg of the play. I can’t find a standout in the heat, so I'll use multiple runners to commence the wager. First timer #2 Guns Allowed (5-1) is my top pick for the always dangerous Brad Cox. The Whisper Hill homebred is cut out to be a real good one and shows six perfectly spaced drills on this strip in advance of his unveiling. 

Brendan Walsh’s #3 Get Them Roses (15-1), Cherie DeVaux’s #5 Mojacar (7-2), the Steve Asmussen-trained #6 Knock It Off (5-1), and DeVaux’s #10 Double Entendre (6-1) are all debuting types that will make the ticket, too. 

Race 7 – Duncan F. Kenner S. 

A deep field of boys will dash 5 1/2 panels on the lawn in the second piece. I’ll use a trio of contenders in the competitive grassy dash with #3 Bear River (8-1), #4 Usually Wrong (3-1), and #9 Can’t Deny It (8-1) as the ones that make the ticket. 

Race 8 – Maiden Special Weight

A full field of three-year-olds will travel two turns on the dirt in yet another challenging part of the sequence. I find $2.2 million purchase #5 Silver Shot (10-1) very interesting at a big price for Asmussen. The son of Tapit ran evenly in a six-furlong contest in his debut and should thrive with the added ground under Paco Lopez. 

#2 Gethsemane (10-1), #7 Reagan’s Honor (8-1), and #12 Ocelli (4-1) are the other ones that I will add to my ticket in the well-matched event. 

Race 9 – Marie G. Krantz Memorial S. 

Fillies and mares will close out the play in a 1 1/16-mile turf tilt, and I think that the affair will come down to a trio of runners, although I will only use two of them. #6 Sweet Treasure (3-1) is three-for-five lifetime on the grass and comes in fresh for her seasonal bow. The Twirling Candy four-year-old has shown plenty of promise at this stage of her development and could be sitting on a big effort in her local debut. 

Group 1 heroine #8 Nanda Dea (9-2) was a stakes victress in her lone prior attempt on the surface and has trained well in preparation for her first run for conditioner Horacio De Paz.