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Welcome to Saturday’s edition of StableDuel Strategy! Today we have a special treat from the folks at StableDuel, giving us a $500 Free Ride at Del Mar! No tricks or gimmicks, just click below to sign up for StableDuel, navigate to Del Mar, and click the Free Ride contest. You can enter up to three free stables. Last Free Ride, Karma members made up 6 of the top 15 final standings. Below, I will go over a few options to target or avoid.
If you need a refresher on scoring, please refer back to our debut article that goes a little more in-depth, located here.
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High Price Favorites
Midcourt $11,000 – Race 2
$11,000 is insane to spend on one horse but lets be clear. This horse finished 2nd/3rd to horses such as Maximum Security and Improbable this year. Midcourt won this race last year. The clear class of the field in a race that is down to 4 horses. Every horse will acquire points unless they are blown out. Prior to writing this article, I interviewed Caleb from DFS Karma on his thoughts on this race. This is what he had to say. “Midcourt would have to fall down to lose.” There you have it folks! Attempt to find value else where and just break out the wallet for this horse.
Kershaw $9,200 – Race 4
Kershaw is my top play today. Every lineup I have was crafted around fitting this horse in it.. More so than Midcourt above (because of value, not performance.) I truly don’t think anyone will be able to keep up with this horse. Kershaw has won at Del Mar previously, so the surface is good for this horse. Think you spend up on this horse and lock in a potential blow out winner. If looking for a little price relief in this race, Popular Kid seems next best to me. Would require the perfect trip from any other horse in this race. And while I’m here, avoid the 5 Bold Endeavor. Declining speed figures are always worrisome to me and this horse has lost over 10 speed points between the last 2 starts.
Mid Price Plays
Combatant $3,000 – Race 2
I know, I know.. I’m cheating by using a horse from the same race. But I truly like the cheapest horse in this race. Acquiring at minimum 20 base points, $3,000 is a great price on a horse that has ran big in some races in the past. In fact, to give a little peek behind the curtain, I’m sort of against the 3 in this race as he is a turf horse and I think distance may compromise him. Now, since he hasn’t ran on dirt, it is impossible to know for sure if he will take, but I’m banking on not. So if my calculations are right, 30 base points will be coming my way when using Combatant.
Value Plays
Canadian Ginger $1,000 – Race 3
I truly struggled to find horses under $1,000 that I felt really strongly about on this card. $1,000 was truly my lowest play across all of my lineups today. I went with Canadian Ginger mainly because connections are throwing this horse into a $36,000 claiming race after winning a $16,000 race at Santa Anita last month. Truly is a step up in class and likely isn’t your winner. But if I’m to believe the horse is still wanted by current connections, it makes sense to run the horse here in this spot. Also to note, it’s been over a year since this horse has fell out of the top 5, but I’m not sure if Canadian Ginger likes the Del Mar surface or not with only 1 here.
