SOUTHLAND Preview - Saturday evening, January 24

At Southland on Saturday evening there are 18 exciting greyhound races on tap and I've selected several good wagering opportunities from them along with MoneyMaker Mike's pick for the 2015 Daytona 550 Championship which is also being run on Saturday evening at Daytona Beach. It will be the 10th race of the evening. Good luck to all and thanks for reading.

Race 1 -  Let's get the ball rolling with an upset in the first race, a Grade A contest over the 583  yard course. It's a very competitive field for sure but I'm giving the edge to the hard running young and talented (2) OSHKOSH GOOBER as the key. He's a rail runner with a strong rush to the turn and in just 11 races in his young career has gone 5-2-1-2, making him 10 of 11 in the top four with 5 wins already. If that's not impressive enough, he's gone from Maiden grade to Grade AA in just two months and he's done that at Southland, the premier greyhound track in the country. I will have him as the key in quinielas as well as the tri's and superfectas and I'll play him with the 3/4/7 for a shot at a couple of good tickets.

Race 9 - Here is a Grade D contest over the 583 yard course and I will go with the (3) BLACKTIE who after finishing 1st and 3rd in two schooling races, came right back with a big 7 and 1/2 length win in his first official start. I think he makes it two wins in a row here. He has a good rush and a nice closing run to go along with his mid-track running style and I think he finds running room early and wins a close one.

Race 15 - Here we have a Grade AA contest over the 660 yard course and the pick here is the (2) OSHKOSH FANTASIA who's been on fire lately with 4 wins and a second place finish in this grade at this distance in her last six races. Out fast, I believe she gets wide early and never looks back. I do like the (1) KIOWA ABBY BROWN as well on the inside but I think as solid as the (2) has been running, she is going to be very hard to beat. I will play the (2) with the 1/7/8 in tri's and superfectas.

Race 18 - The MoneyMaker pick of the evening is in the 18th race, a Grade D contest over the 583 yard course and I like the (5) ST. PETES GIRL as the upset of the evening. She is a young greyhound who has 4 top 4 finishes in 6 races and even though she won't be among the frontrunners early as she breaks slow, she certainly will be making a strong closing move from the backstretch to the wire. I believe she catches the leaders just in time to get the win. She does have an inside running style but I think she breaks late and avoids early trouble and comes away with room in which to close down the frontrunners.

MoneyMaker Mike's pick for the 2015 DAYTONA 550 race on Saturday evening, January 24 which is the 10th race at Daytona Beach is the (1) HUSKER MAGIC. She was the winningest female greyhound in the country in 2014 and even though it's a star studded field, I look for her to use her blazing early speed to be near the front or in the lead at the turn and she is one tough lady to catch once she has the front. There is a lot of early speed in this contest but I think the one box gives HUSKER MAGIC the edge, albeit perhaps a slight one with all these outstanding greyhounds giving it their all. I will play the 1 with the 2/3/8 in the quinielas and play her first and second in some tri's with the same dogs. Should be one heck of an exciting race and good luck to all the greyhounds.

Good luck to everyone and thanks for reading.