The first
two-day Pick Six carryover of the Santa Anita meet, $239,518, will await
horseplayers on Sunday after no tickets were able to isolate all six winners in
the popular exotic sequence on Friday.
Normally, the pool would carry into the following
day, but since Santa Anita is offering a special “Luck” Pick Six in
conjunction with Gulfstream Park
on Saturday’s Sunshine Millions Day, the two-day carryover is being put
on hold for a day.
A $92.40 winner, Melrose Woods, in Friday’s
fourth race and a $35.60 payoff on Pop the Cork two races later eliminated the
vast majority of participants early after a one-day carryover of $55,584 had
gone into the program.
With heightened interest on Sunday, a season high
Pick Six pool in excess of $750,000 is expected on the sequence that will begin
with the fourth race. First post is at 12:30 p.m.
With the ultra-consistent Unzip Me set to run in
Sunday’s eighth-race feature, the $70,000 Wishing Well Stakes, she almost
certainly will be a single on most all Pick Six tickets. Unzip Me has won 6 of
10 starts over Santa Anita’s hillside turf course and will be an odds-on
favorite to add another victory.
The fourth race is quite another matter. Five of
the six entrants are dropping in class in the $25,000 claimer at 6 ½ furlongs.
Valkyrie Missile, on the outside with Joel Rosario, will be well supported, but
the contest has the look of a spread event for players.
The fifth is a maiden claimer at 5 ½ furlongs with
eight entrants. Our Last Monte has a pair of seconds and a third at the
race’s $20,000 claiming level. Comebacking Joburg Star and My Slew will
attract attention while dropping out of straight maiden events.
Players might consider at least a half-dozen of the
11 entrants in the contentious sixth, a second condition allowance race with an
optional $62,500 claiming tag at one mile on turf. Surplus, Hurricane Lake, comebacking
Dewey’s Special and Boxuer des Rues were victorious in their previous
starts. Mega Heat, beaten by less than one length when fourth in last
fall’s $150,000 California Cup Classic following three straight wins,
returns from a freshening as the likely choice.
Eight maidens will contest the seventh.
Zackn’mat, second in his last two tries, appears to be the best of those
that have run. Top trainers Bob Baffert and Steve Asmussen will unveil a pair
of expensive first-timers in Stirred Up and Verne, respectively.
After Unzip Me struts her stuff in the eighth with
French-bred Givine appearing to be her foremost challenger, Sunday’s Pick
Six will conclude with a $12,500 claimer for fillies and mares that attracted
10 entrants in a difficult race to analyze. Brooklyn Rose is dropping out of a
troubled fourth in a $25,000 claimer for trainer Bob Hess. Russian Bayou is
coming off a solid second at the level for trainer Kristin Mulhall with Rosario set to ride her
back.