The Ohio Derby is finally here! Normally I am as anti-Ohio as it gets, only using it as a drive-thru/flyover state, but I’ll make an exception when it comes to horse racing. JACK Thistledown Racino is home to the Ohio Derby and they have a pretty nice card, all things considered. The highlight of the day is, of course, the Ohio Derby race 11. We will see the return of four-ish Kentucky Derby horses, and I say four-ish since Ethereal Road scratched from the derby (and allowed Rich Strike to get in and… history.) StableDuel has a $5,000 contest with only a $50 entry fee. The top spot will take home $1,200. There is a limit of 3 stables per person in this contest, so I suggest maxing out entries! There is NO BETTER TIME than NOW to SIGN UP!
If you’re new to StableDuel, the idea is simple. Select 10 horses to build your stable while staying within the salary cap of $50,000. Horses are assigned prices based on their morning line odds, so you cannot use all favorites in your stable. StableDuel awards points for horses that come 1st – 5th and subtracts horses that finish outside of the top 5. This is why it is crucial to make sure you’re reading our content to narrow in on value horses that we think can get points.
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High Price Favorites
#2 Dougie D Oro $8,000 – Race 6
I think Dougie D Oro is one of the most likely winners on the whole day, so I will be loading him up in 100% of my stables. I always like when I can find a horse to lean on that’s a high priced favorite, but remains under $10,000. There’s a couple angles I like about this horse. First, he gets one of his regular riders. This is important as in his last 11 starts, he had two starts with other jockeys and they both had him finish off the board. The other nine starts, his regular riders were on board and finished in the money ALL NINE TIMES, 7 of them being wins! I also think this horse is faster than every other horse in the race. He projects to be on the lead and I’m not sure if any of the other horses are fast enough to challenge him. Even still, last time out at Belterra, Dougie D Oro pressured a HOT pace of 21 quarter and 44 half. He proceeded to turn on the burners and blow by the leaders down the stretch and win by a length and a half. I think that shows that even with a little pressure, he will be able to handle this 6F with ease.
Mid Price Plays
#4 Candlelight Hours $3,000 – Race 10
I may be way out in left field, but I think Candlelight Hours has an extremely good chance of not only hitting the board, but challenging the two favorites for a win. This horse is coming in on a four race winning streak and honestly, besides the one synthetic try, this horse has finished first or second in ALL 8 dirt efforts. This horse loves to compete and tries hard to win. I absolutely loved watching her replays this morning and seeing a horse that understands she has to pass the other horses and actually want to. The distance is a bit long, but she did just win a mile and sixteenth by over 4 lengths, so MAYBE she has a shot here.
Value Plays
#8 Big Truck $1000 – Race 9
I don’t know if Big Truck is good enough to win this race, but his past history is solid with these $75k Stakes races for Ohio-bred horses. His most recent race of this condition and level was a winning effort against other horses in this field. Last August, he was scheduled to run another one of these conditioned stakes on the turf, but it was washed off and ran on wet dirt. He still had a solid effort finishing second on that surface. He will certainly be up against it with some of these other horses, but I would give him a fighting shot to win and pretty good odds to at least give you a top 5 finish for StableDuel points.
