Ellis Park: How to bet the Dade Park Dash on Friday

A total of nine sophomores will speed 5 1/2 furlongs over the Ellis Park grass in Friday’s $150,000 Dade Park Dash. I often lead towards early speed with races on the green at this venue, and #3 Rolando (6-1) looks like the one to catch in the heat at a nice price, so I’ll side with him. Trained by Fausto Gutierrez, the son of Vekoma, has yet to race on the turf but is bred to be a versatile type, and I feel that the chestnut will take to the surface change with ease in the feature. 

Dade Park Dash Wagers

• $24 win #3 Rolando ($24)
• $6 exacta box 3-8 ($12)
• 50-cent trifecta box 3,5,8,9 ($12)

The St. George homebred earned his biggest win to date when eclipsing the Hutcheson S. at Gulfstream Park two back, and he comes in for his local bow off of some quick morning drills as of late. If he breaks well, as expected, then the colt will clear the runner to his inside early and drive home late with Julien Leparoux on board. 

Two-time stakes winner #8 Chasing Liberty (7-2) broke his maiden at this distance last July and will cut back after going long in five straight for conditioner Rob Atras. The chestnut son of Constitution rarely runs a subpar race and comes in fresh for a first try since May for a very good layoff trainer. Kentucky-bred colt will be taken back early and unleashed approaching the turn for home by Florent Geroux. 

#9 Dreaminblue (6-1) has shown improvement since having blinkers added in December and is intriguing to me while he makes his initial try on the sod. The Randy Morse pupil is by fine turf influence Street Boss and showed a fine turn of foot on the main oval last time when just missing in the allowance ranks at Churchill Downs. The chestnut colt could move forward in his second run off the break and will be doing his best work inside the final furlong with Christian Torres retaining the ride. 

Larry Rivelli’s #5 Star’s Image (9-2) is two-for-two on the lawn in his career and has to be considered, too. The son of Caravaggio drilled a bullet half-mile in his latest morning move and will be pressing the pace from the break beneath Walter Rodriguez.