Santa Anita Opening Day RESULTS

By CandiceCurtis
Updated: December 28, 2016

Photo by Alex Evers/Eclipse Sportswire

G3 San Simeon Stakes

A layoff of nearly 2 years was a big Super Screener knock against Betty’s Bambino. He met all other criteria quite well and would have been rated as at least a “B” horse had he not been away from the track for so long. Regardless, he won like a good thing circling the field 6 wide on the turn and then mowing down his foes in the stretch. The Super Screener did back him up in the win spot on a suggested Trifecta wager slotting our two “A” horses in the second place position to hit for a decent $357 payoff.

A good practice to help improve the structuring of your wagering tickets is to always rate your horses as “A”, “B”, “C” and “X” horses and than keep track of patterns as to how your selections finished in the Exacta. For example, looking back over Super Screener history, the most frequently occurring Exacta results are as follows:

In the case of Betty’s Bambino, the Super Screener rated that horse as a “C” horse. In structuring suggested wagers, we used Betty’s Bambino (“C” horse) over the “A” horses (#3 combination above) in the first two slots of the Trifecta to “cover” for the possibility that Betty’s Bambino could win off the 2 year layoff and defeat one of our two “A” horses. This “saver” type wager will help get you past a race with a small profit or minimal hit to your bankroll so that you can continue on to the next race on which you want to wager without coming from out of a big hole.

A small victory in this race was the fact that the Super Screener’s top long shot bomber picks did manage to finish 4th and 6th at odds of 70-1 (longest shot on the board!) and 49-1, respectively. We heard that some of you singled those two long shots in 4th in your Superfecta’s while going wider in the other tiers and cashed big time! Congratulations on a huge score of over $8,000 for a dollar wager! Here’s what the Super Screener had to say about #13 Horse Laugh the 70-1 long shot pick:

#7 Cape Wolfe and #13 Horse Laugh will get the perfect pace set up for their decidedly late energy distribution profile as these two horses will make up the back of the field with the former foe having the slight advantage. The odds on this pair will easily exceed 25-1 offering plenty of value as bottom of Trifecta/Superfecta choices.

“TOP LONG SHOT (Horse Laugh) Deep closer caught the bottom of the Tri/Super last three starts on the hillside course at big odds facing similar. Good horse to use in the 3 and 4 holes of Exotic at a huge price. Needs a hot pace.
One last trip note and an important handicapping lesson. Our top value pick, Ohio, had come into this race off a series of trouble filled races. One was beginning to think that this was one of those horses that just creates his own trouble. This was certainly the case again here as he steadied twice early in the race and then was in tight down the lane…THEN he finally got into his stride but too late. Very talented horse that just can’t seem to get out of his own way. The Super Screener has put this one in the penalty box until further notice.

G1 La Brea

The upset winner of this race, Constellation, was a complete miss by the Super Screener. While this filly showed improvement in her last race, the projected jump in number of lengths she would have to improve by against this field was about 8 lengths…so she became an improbable candidate to hit the Exacta. Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer clearly had this one ready to pop a new lifetime top.

The Super Screener’s top two picks did manage to finish 2nd and 3rd in this race. Deep closer, Lightstream, shipped in for this one from the East Coast but was never really a factor just passing tiring horses late to finish a well beaten 5th.

Our top win pick, Enola Gray raced very wide throughout losing a lot of valuable ground and is one to watch knowing she’ll move up with a better trip next time.

G1 Malibu Stakes

The feature race on the card was a good one even though the result projected to be quite chalky. Mind Your Biscuits got the hot pace he needed and ran with determination to win this one confirming his status as one of the top 3 year-old sprinters in the country right now. His connections said that he was absolutely relishing the Santa Anita track and mild weather and he took care of business in winning this race at generous odds of 7-2. Here’s what the Super Screener had to say about Mind Your Biscuits:

“Most reliable board hitter that just grinds it out in every race. Game 3rd in the BC Sprint. Gets a pressured pace set up for his late energy distribution profile. A bit shorter distance is preferred. Despite shipping back and forth, training really well here and has flourished in So. Cal. Perfect horse to use as a single, vertically.”

Our top three ranked horses comprised the Trifecta finishers but the payoff was quite chalky as anticipated.

G2 Mathis Brothers Mile

The Saturday Santa Anita card closed out with our top win pick, Conquest Enforcer, taking this one gate to wire and he did it while dueling through very swift fractions. This is a very good looking 3 year-old turf horse that we’ll be hearing a lot more about as we turn the calendar.

This is what the Super screener had to say about Conquest Enforcer:

“Woodbine invader moves to the D’Amato barn and looms the best win threat to #1 Frank Conversation. Will be forwardly placed but is the best of that type here. Runs best fresh and works have been just super. Use!”

Mittersill popped up for 2nd far exceeding Super Screener expectations while our top value play, Isotherm finished 4th but he was very wide on that final turn and down the stretch losing a lot of pressure ground in the process. He’s another to watch on the come back.

Get ready because in just a few weeks the Kentucky Derby prep season starts heating up with prep racing every weekend starting in January and we’ll be covering all those preps here so don’t miss a single week of the action. Let’s give ourselves the big edge that will come from analyzing these races both before and after they are run as we rate the quality of each of those prep races to identify the sneaky good preps that will fool a lot of people into thinking those horses don’t have a shot in the Kentucky Derby.

Plenty of great stakes racing action resumes this upcoming holiday weekend so stay tuned.

Go fast and win!
Mike