Delaware Park: A single for the $8,594 Pick 5 carryover

There’s a lot to look forward to during the Saturday card at Delaware Park.

The highlight from a sporting perspective is the running of the $100,000 Rocky Run S. at Delaware Park, a one-mile contest that drew an overflow field of 11 juveniles, including one also-eligible entrant. But bettors might be most excited to play the 50-cent Early Pick 5, which boasts a non-jackpot carryover worth $8,594.

The sequence gets underway in Race 1 (post time 12:30 p.m. ET), a $40,000 starter optional claimer for fillies and mares racing one mile and 70 yards on dirt. Only six horses have entered, so mathematically speaking this is a favorable spot in which to seek a single.

#1 Patty Cakes (9-5) and #2 Indy Again (5-2), stablemates conditioned by hot trainer Jamie Ness (a 28% winner at Delaware Park this meet), are the two morning line favorites. Patty Cakes exits a third-place finish in a $17,500 allowance optional claimer racing one mile at Delaware Park, while Indy Again boasts a three-race win streak highlighted by victory in a one-mile $26,000 claimer at Delaware.

The problem is, there’s barely any speed entered in Race 1, and neither Patty Cakes nor Indy Again are pacesetters. That’s why we’ll use third choice #6 Will Or Won’t (7-2) as a creative single.

In two starts since being claimed by high-percentage trainer Timothy Kreiser, Will Or Won’t hasn’t been challenged. In a $16,000 starter optional claimer racing one mile at Penn National on Aug. 23, she pressed a decent pace before taking over to win by two lengths. Then in a 1 1/16-mile contest over the same track and class level on Sept. 14, Will Or Won’t tracked another respectable pace from second place before seizing command to win by 3 3/4 lengths.

Will Or Won’t owns the best recent Brisnet E1 and E2 Pace ratings in this field, so she should have every chance to secure an uncontested lead under jockey Angel Rodriguez, a 38% winner teaming up with Kreiser over the last two months. Throw in the fact that her last two Brisnet Speed ratings (83 and 81) are higher than the last two numbers posted by Patty Cake and Indy Again, and Will Or Won’t looks ready to win her third straight race.

Good luck!