2024 Breeders' Cup: Rolling Pick 3 play for Saturday

The instituting of rolling Pick 3s has generally been helpful to horseplayers, allowing them a larger variety of sequences from which to choose.

No longer are bettors faced with the prospect of having to key an odds-on stickout in the first leg that everyone else is using. They can instead scout out a sequence where the chances of many more tickets dying before the second leg are much higher.

Bettors will have a lot of rolling Pick 3 options on Saturday's Breeders' Cup card at Del Mar. Here is one I'll be focusing on.

Breeders' Cup Rolling Pick 3 wager

• Race 8, $2 Pick 3: 1,3,12 with 3,10 with 1,10 = $24.

Race 8: Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), 5:41 p.m. ET

#3 City of Troy (5-2), perhaps the best horse on paper, is a bit undervalued on the morning line based on his lack of dirt experience. That means he might not be favored at all, but I'll still be using him if he happens to best America can muster.

The frontrunning Whitney (G1) winner #12 Arthur's Ride (15-1) appears a must-use if he runs back to his best Saratoga form, while Japanese invader #1 Forever Young (6-1) might be the horse to use among those who competed in the Kentucky Derby (G1), considering his hard-luck third-place finish.

Race 9: Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1), 6:25 p.m. ET

An edition that has come up a touch soft compared to past renewals, I'm going to fade morning-line favorite #4 War Like Goddess and instead use #3 Cinderella's Dream (4-1), the once-beaten three-year-old who appears to fit well despite stepping up in class and trip. She produced a strong closing kick to win both the Belmont Oaks (G1) and Saratoga Oaks (G3), and frankly she has more upside than a lot of these.

Among the more battle-hardened veterans, I can see former Canadian Horse of the Year #10 Moira (8-1) improving on her solid third-place run in this event last year. She's relatively fresh, too, with just three prior runs this season.

Race 10: Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), 7:05 p.m. ET

A pair of colts who have shown vast improvement this year will make the ticket. #10 Mullikin (7-2) is undefeated this year and is well spotted breaking outside most of the other speed. He's capable of stalking a bit, and his ability over longer suggests he'll presumably have more in the tank when some of the other speedballs begin to wilt.

The three-year-old #1 Raging Torrent (10-1) has been a totally different horse since returning to the dirt last spring. The only one in the field with prior winning form at Del Mar, he enters fresh following his defeat of The Chosen Vron in the Pat O'Brien (G2) in late August.