Thursday’s Best Bets and Quick Picks: Hawthorne Pick 6 carryover

Handicapper J. Keeler Johnson shares best bets and quick picks for Thursday, April 23 at Keeneland, Gulfstream Park, and Oaklawn Park, along with horses to single in the $285 Pick 6 carryover at Hawthorne.

Today’s special offers from TwinSpires include:

• New Players $200 Sign-Up Bonus: Open your TwinSpires.com account using the offer code BET200 to start earning a $200 bonus.
• $2,000 Win Ladder at Keeneland: Hit $10+ single-horse win wagers at Keeneland to climb the Win Ladder and compete for your share of a $2,000 prize pool each racing Thursday and Friday in April.

Today’s TwinSpires tournaments include:

• $68 Keeneland Bet and Set Feeder to 4/30 Thurby KDBC Qualifier
• $40 Keeneland Challenge
• $100 Keeneland Challenge
• $250 Keeneland Feeder to 4/25 Churchill Downs KDBC Qualifier
• $200 Oaklawn Feeder to 5/1 Kentucky Oaks Betting Challenge
• $80 Charles Town Feeder to 4/24 Keeneland Bonus Feeder
• $40 Charles Town Challenge

Best Bets and Quick Picks

Keeneland: Race 2: Maiden Special Weight (5 1/2 furlongs on turf, 1:32 p.m. ET)

Wesley Ward is the dominant trainer of two-year-olds during the spring at Keeneland. He’s gone 3-for-6 (50%) this meet and can snag another win with #3 Through the Years (7-5).

A well-bred daughter of early-maturing turf sprinter No Nay Never, Through the Years has posted sharp workouts leading up to her debut, including a bullet three furlongs in :35 1/5 at Keeneland. Let’s key her over #2 Tolstoy (4-1) in the exacta.

Selections

• #3 Through the Years (7-5)
• #2 Tolstoy (4-1)
• #4 Automatic Press (8-1)

Wagers

• $20 Exacta: 3 with 2

Gulfstream Park: Race 3: Maiden Special Weight (seven furlongs on dirt, 1:54 p.m. ET)

#2 Delightfully (8-5), a full-sister to two-time champion Essential Quality, has turned in a lengthy series of workouts in preparation for her debut.

High-percentage trainer Brad Cox (a 22% winner with horses debuting in maiden special weights) conditions the gray filly, and red-hot jockey Samy Camacho is named to ride. There’s a lot to like about Delightfully, so let’s bet her on top of stablemate #5 Nahla (9-5) in a cold exacta.

Selections

• #2 Delightfully (8-5)
• #5 Nahla (9-5)
• #7 Late Night Text (7-2)

Wagers

• $15 Exacta: 2 with 5

Oaklawn Park: Race 7: Maiden Special Weight (one mile on dirt, 5:02 p.m. ET)

Since 2021, trainer Brad Cox has compiled a strong 4-for-13 (31%) record debuting three-year-olds in route races at Oaklawn Park.

This bodes well for #2 About Face (5-2). The stoutly bred son of Candy Ride has the pedigree to shine over one mile and has a shot to upset #5 Biloba (8-5), a three-time runner-up stretching out beyond six furlongs for the first time.

Let’s bet About Face to win and play him over Biloba in an exacta.

Selections

• #2 About Face (5-2)
• #5 Biloba (8-5)
• #9 Champagne Liberal (10-1)

Wagers

• $13 to win on #2 About Face
• $12 Exacta: 2 with 5
  Total: $25

Carryover Watch

Hawthorne: Race 2: $285 Pick 6 carryover (4:06 p.m. ET)

The $1 Pick 6 went unsolved on opening day at Hawthorne, so the second day of the meet features a $285 Pick 6 carryover.

The prize pool might be small, but it adds value to a Pick 6 that should be winnable on a modest budget. Every race in the sequence contains five horses, so before scratches the Pick 6 features 30 horses in total and only 15,625 possible outcomes. Those are tiny numbers for a Pick 6.

We can simplify the Pick 6 even further by singling a pair of promising Larry Rivelli trainees. Rivelli went 32-for-117 (27%) at Hawthorne in 2025, and on Thursday he appears poised to secure his first two wins of the 2026 meet.

Race 2: #2 Iceberg Slim (8-5)

The first Rivelli trainee we’ll single is Iceberg Slim in Race 2, a maiden special weight for three-year-olds and older horses dashing five furlongs on dirt.

Iceberg Slim debuted in a 5 1/2-furlong $50,000 maiden optional claimer over the Fair Grounds turf course. After opening up a daylight lead, he gave way in the homestretch to finish ninth.

Iceberg Slim should find the competition easier at Hawthorne, and his pedigree suggests switching to dirt may trigger improvement. Three of his half-siblings have won stakes over the Hawthorne dirt, and Rivelli wins at a 35% rate with horses switching from turf to dirt.

Throw in the fact Iceberg Slim breezed a bullet half-mile at Hawthorne in :47 3/5 on April 7, and the bay four-year-old is a compelling favorite.

Race 5: #2 Count the Green (8-5)

The second Rivelli trainee worth singling is Count the Green, a first-time starter sired by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) winner Hootenanny.

Count the Green is facing a largely unremarkable field in this maiden special weight for Illinois-breds sprinting five furlongs over the main track. He might be a three-year-old facing older horses, but that’s okay; Rivelli wins at a 30% rate with horses debuting in maiden special weights, and sharp workouts (including five furlongs in 1:00 4/5 at Hawthorne) suggest Count the Green has talent.

Count the Green’s key rival, #1 Ciao Tommaso (5-2), hasn’t run in 10 months and is conditioned by a trainer who has gone 0-for-20 in recent years with horses returning from layoffs of 90 days or more. As a result, the stage appears set for Count the Green to score a winning debut.

Good luck!