How to bet the 2024 Fantasy Stakes

An excellent field of 12 three-year-old fillies will vie in the lucrative $750,000 Fantasy S. (G2) at Oaklawn Park on Saturday. The important Road to the Kentucky Oaks contest features eight individual stakes heroines in the affair and looks to be a really good betting opportunity. I am not confident enough to land on just a single filly in the field and I will have to spread with a few of the contenders in the group. 

Fantasy Wagers

• $2 exacta box 1,3,5,12 ($24)
• 50-cent trifecta 1 with 3,5,12 with all ($15)
• 50-cent trifecta 3,5,12 with 1 with all ($15)

#1 My Mane Squeeze has won three straight stakes races with New York-bred foes and gets Flavien Prat to ride. This Audible filly has won twice at one mile, so the distance is of no concern to me, and she has the gate presence to secure a good early position to avoid being in behind a wall of runners into the first turn, as well. The Mike Maker trainee could potentially improve in her two-turn debut on Saturday, too. 

California import #5 Where’s My Ring flashed ability as a juvenile but has upped her game since adding blinkers two back. The Twirling Candy filly has run into the superb Kinza in two of her last three races overall, led by a second in the Santa Ysabel (G3) most recently, and I’m thinking that Kinza would have been a solid favorite if she shipped in for this contest. The Val Brinkerhoff pupil will have Francisco Arrieta in the silks. 

Robertino Diodoro’s #3 Midshipman’s Dance didn’t ace her route test in the Honeybee (G3) when fifth, beaten by 4 1/4 lengths, last time out, but she didn’t have much of a trip in that outing, either. The $150,000 yearling purchase gets a much better starting slot on this occasion and will have excellent value with Ramon Vazquez riding. I give her a good exotics chance. 

I’m also going to use #12 Thorpedo Anna for Kenny McPeek. The Fast Anna filly left a fine impression on me last campaign, and while this is a very ambitious spot for a sophomore debut while drawing an impossible post, I feel that she is very talented and will pass a lot of horses in the lane with Brian Hernandez riding.