Pick 4 Sharp With Live Horses, $18 Winner; Ten Overnight Victors Shine At $22, $17, $16, $10

The overnights were good to us this past weekend (Thursday, Dec. 10 through Saturday, Dec. 12) and we contributed to a large Pick-4 payoff with choices that were splendid across the board as well.

The H2W (horses-to-watch) list (with picks leftover to follow until our next blog) had a 50-percent across-the-board percentage with 17 percent winning. The top winner paid $22.80 (see complete review below).

Our chosen overnight features began with a Dayton Pick 4 on Dec. 10. We nailed the second leg with Independent Sprit ($18.40, $8.00, $4.00). In the first leg we were second with E R Myron ($7.40, $4.00) and ninth. In leg three we were second, offering Big Wheel ($18.00, $10.40) and yes, those mutuels are spot on. Our choice in leg four finished sixth. The Pick 4 paid $1,175.30 for 50 cents. Our contribution was the second highest winning price of the quartet.

That afternoon at Freehold we could not beat, as we suggested might happen, the two huge choices, Big Puff Doggie ($2.20, $2.20, $2.20 ok) and Beau Riivage ($3.20, $2.20), combining for an exacta worth $9.40. We tried to whip them with His Eminence (43-1) but he finished seventh.

Our only other winner in our personal features took place at Charlottestown. It was Hog Aufray ($15.80, $7.50, $2.40) on Dec. 12. The other losing choices (all off the board) in our features, Spirit Of Desire (21-1, Meadowlands), Fly To The Angels (5-1 Northfield), Up Up And Out (30-1, Meadowlands), Abs Attack (7-1, Dayton), Odds On Serpens (9-1, Dayton) and Rock N Randall (7-1, Dayton) will join the others that did not win in the next H2W list.

H2W LIST RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas listed are included when a H2W horse finishes second 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). The note “ok” determines that prices published are correct even when a show price exceeds a place price or any or all of the prices are the same. This week, there were 58 active horses (a 17-percent win hit rate and a 50-percent in-the-money hit rate).

Please note that some H2W results reflect win, place, show and exotic results occurring by press time but some horses race after the blog is posted (we list them the following week) It is up to you to follow horses that have not performed before this weekly review is posted.

Winners

Fan Regal, $22.80, $6.60, $3.50, Charlottestown
Pureform Electra, $17.80, $5.40, $5.10, Fraser
Moveslike Mcjagger, $16.60, $5.40, $5.40 ok, Meadows
Checks Commodore, $10.80, $3.80, $2.80, Freehold
Machness, $8.10, $4.90, $2.70, Batavia
Impatient Lady, $6.80, $4.00, $3.10, Flamboro
Pacific Western, $6.20, $5.00, $3.60, Dover
Tyler, $4.90, $2.40, $2.30, Yonkers
Im Shameless, $3.40, $2.60, $2.20, Northfield
Just Hang Out, $2.90, $2.20, $2.10, Saratoga

Seconds

Bahama Bay, $8.50, $4.20 (Exacta $109.50), Batavia
Musical Spell, $5.90, $3.00 (Exacta $18.20), Woodbine
Ozymandros, $5.70, $4.20, Saratoga
Bettormeboy, $4.60, $2.80, Cal Expo
Pinkpolo Socks, $3.80, $3.20, (Exacta $7.00), Northfield
Smiling Major, $3.80, $4.00 ok (Exacta $9.60), Cal Expo
Naturescape, $3.70, n/s (Exacta $8.80), Woodbine
Placer, $3.40, $2.20 (Exacta $9.10), Cal Expo
Shock N Rock, $3.10, $2.50, Woodbine
Four Hour Nap, $2.60, $2.10, Meadowlands
 
Thirds

Shaving Mug, $14.80, Meadowlands
Big City Jewel, $6.20, Woodbine
Timely Finesse, $4.30, Charlottestown
Rocket Art, $3.90, Flamboro
Track Master, $3.50, Woodbine
Wine Market, $3.40, Freehold
The Dominate One, $3.00, Batavia
Pancakes, $3.00, Meadowlands
Twilight Raes, $2.70, Northlands

News & Notes

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission approved race dates for standardbreds in 2016. Hoosier Park was granted 160 days to begin on Friday, April 1 and conclude on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016. Racing will take place Tuesdays through Saturdays with a first-race post time of 5:45 p.m. One-hundred-fourteen days will be devoted to thoroughbred racing with occasional quarter horse racing added into the days’ programs.

In the March 23 winners’ list for the H2W, the second horse was Rays Rayzer ($8.20, $5.40, $2.60) from a race at Cal Expo. The 11-year-old pacer, trained by Edwin Quevedo, soon turned sour and bettors abandoned him. Quevedo said he had bloodwork done and found the pacer was suffering from anemia. After treatment, the horse “came back to where he should be,” said the trainer. But the fans could not measure Rays Razer’s return to normality, so they let him race back-to-back victories at 22-1 and 15-1. Now, bettors will kiss those long prices goodbye. Quevedo said, “He’s feeling very good right now.” And handicappers can see it plainly in the past performances.

TwinSpires harness blog fans await our TwinSpires Players Horse of the Year, accompanied by our major successes during 2015. The top horse will be the one winner we posted any time during the 2015 season, either in a feature or in the list, that paid the highest win mutual. In the past few years, the winner has been a horse paying $100 or more to win. Also, we will publish a list of all horses we supported in these blogs for 2015 that won and paid 4-1 or higher. Keep reading our blogs into the year’s end for all of this information.

Charlottestown Driving Park and Batavia Downs are done racing for 2015 but don’t erase their H2W leftovers. The horses on the H2W list that we have been following or have yet to complete their twice-appearing status on the list, remain in our files. So, if and when they appear at other tracks, they will show up on the list either for the first or second times.

Miami Valley Raceway’s third harness racing season will include 30 new late closing series spread over the course of the four-month, 86-program meet which will feature record purses more than 30 percent higher than in 2015. Racing will be presented five days a week from Jan. 9 through May 9 afternoon matinees every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at 2:05 p.m., with evening cards beginning at 6:05 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The track surface has been revamped with two inches of old top dressing removed, down to six inches above the base, and a new more pervious grade of stone added. Officials say that the adjusted surface will provide “more versatility in freeze/thaw environments and will prove itself at the timer, too. New wagering opportunities include the addition of rolling Daily Doubles on races 1 through 7, a 50-cent Lucky Pick-5 (with an industry low 12 percent takeout) beginning on Race 8, and a 10-cent Buckeye Hi-5 on the 12 race. The latter two new wagers have carryover provisions until a winning ticket is sold.

Extraordinary Extras

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

Ray Cotolo contributed to this blog

For Thom Pye cartoons, informative harness history and more, click here ~