Tuesday’s Best Bets and Quick Picks: $58,481 Pick 5 carryover

Handicapper J. Keeler Johnson shares best bets and quick picks for Tuesday, April 28 at Churchill Downs, along with horses to play in the $58,481 Pick 5 carryover at Turf Paradise.

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.
• $250,000 Single Winner Bonus Jackpot 8: Play the Jackpot 8 on TwinSpires each Churchill Downs racing day through May 1 for a chance to win a Single Winner Bonus of $250,000 for any single winner of the Jackpot 8.

Today’s TwinSpires tournaments include:

• $86 Churchill Downs Bet and Set KDBC Qualifier
• $100 Churchill Downs Feeder to 4/29 Churchill Downs Bonus Feeder
• $200 Churchill Downs Feeder to 5/1 Kentucky Oaks Betting Challenge
• $100 Churchill Downs Challenge
• $40 Churchill Downs Challenge
• $40 Mountaineer Challenge
• $80 Mountaineer Feeder to 4/30 Churchill Downs Bonus Feeder

Best Bets and Quick Picks

Churchill Downs: Race 1: $50,000 Claiming (six furlongs on dirt, 12:45 p.m. ET)

#3 C’Est Cheese (3-1) earned a field-best 92 Brisnet Speed rating when trouncing a maiden special weight sprint at Keeneland over a couple of next-out winners. She subsequently competed four times against allowance and allowance optional claiming competition, most notably winning a six-furlong sprint at Fair Grounds with a respectable 84 Brisnet Speed rating.

C’Est Cheese hasn’t raced since August, but trainer Whit Beckman wins at a sharp 20% rate with horses returning from layoffs of 90 days or more, suggesting C’Est Cheese has a strong chance to shine while dropping in class for her return.

#2 Sing a Little Song (8-5) can complete the exacta.

Selections

• #3 C’Est Cheese (3-1)
• #2 Sing a Little Song (8-5)
• #6 Danzig’s Dora (2-1)

Wagers

• $20 to win on #3 C’Est Cheese
• $10 Exacta: 3 with 2
  Total: $30

Churchill Downs: Race 2: Maiden Special Weight (4 1/2 furlongs on dirt, 1:14 p.m. ET)

Trainer Wesley Ward is known for his exceptional success saddling two-year-olds early in the season. He can pick up a win at Churchill Downs with #6 Fanshell Beach (9-5), a daughter of 2021 champion two-year-old male Corniche.

Fanshell Beach enters off sharp workouts, including a bullet three furlongs from the Keeneland starting gate in :35 4/5, and she has Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez named to ride.

Let’s key Fanshell Beach over the fast-working #1 Booked (7-5) in an exacta.

Selections

• #6 Fanshell Beach (9-5)
• #1 Booked (7-5)
• #2 Heart of a Hero (30-1)

Wagers

• $25 Exacta: 6 with 1

Churchill Downs: Race 8: $100,000 Allowance Optional Claiming (7 1/2 furlongs on dirt, 4:24 p.m. ET)

#5 Owen Almighty (5-1) enjoyed a productive three-year-old season, winning the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and finishing fifth in the Kentucky Derby (G1). But even though he’s performed well in route races, he’s also fared well sprinting seven furlongs, winning the Ellis Park Juvenile and crossing the wire first in the Pasco S.

Owen Almighty has run below form in his last three starts, but perhaps adding Lasix (a 21% winning move for trainer Brian Lynch) in his second start of 2026 can trigger a rebound.

Let’s place a win bet on Owen Almighty.

Selections

• #5 Owen Almighty (5-1)
• #6 Echo Again (9-2)
• #4 Furio (6-1)

Wagers

• $25 to win on #5 Owen Almighty

Carryover Watch

Turf Paradise: Race 5: $58,481 Pick 5 carryover (6:09 p.m. ET)

After going unsolved on Monday, the 50-cent Pick 5 at Turf Paradise features a lucrative $58,481 carryover for Tuesday’s card.

A sequence of medium complexity awaits bettors. The five races have attracted a total of 42 horses (averaging 8.4 per race) before scratches, and there are 39,690 possible Pick 5 outcomes to analyze.

If you’re looking for a single to build tickets around, our best recommendation is #6 Silent Runner (7-2) in Race 6, a $20,000 allowance optional claimer taking place over one mile on turf.

Silent Runner is the only obvious frontrunner entered in Race 6, so he has a chance to shake loose on an uncontested lead. That’s happened twice to Silent Runner at Turf Paradise this winter, and both times he led all the way to beat quality competition.

On Jan. 12, Silent Runner wired a $16,000 starter optional claimer racing about one mile at Turf Paradise by a head over #3 My Cairo Kid (8-1). Then in the Walter R. Cluer Memorial racing about 7 1/2 furlongs on Feb. 11, Silent Runner again led from the start to defeat #5 Mongolian Memory (5-2) by half a length, earning a career-best 93 Brisnet Speed rating.

Silent Runner has recently defeated four of the six rivals he’ll face in Race 6, and since he appears poised to receive a perfect setup, he’s a compelling win threat for the red-hot jockey/trainer duo of Adrian Castellanos and Jose Silva Jr.

The Pick 5 concludes in Race 9, a $12,500 maiden claimer for three-year-olds sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs on dirt. A couple of price horses offer appeal: #8 Linchpin Russ (8-1) and #10 Itsnotrocket (8-1).

Linchpin Russ is an unraced gelding trained by Ryan Kenney, who wins at a lofty 23% rate with first-time starters. A lengthy series of workouts at Turf Paradise should have Linchpin Russ fit for a competitive debut under apprentice jockey Sachin Parris, who rides with a five-pound weight allowance.

As for Itsnotrocket, he’s shipping in from California. In his lone sprint start to date, he ran fourth in a six-furlong $50,000 maiden claimer for California-breds at Santa Anita, earning a 65 Brisnet Speed rating that ranks as the co-highest number belonging to any of the horses entered in Race 9.

Don’t leave Linchpin Russ and Itsnotrocket off your Pick 5 tickets.

Good luck!