Exotics Plays for the San Francisco Mile

A full and well-matched field of 14 will go postward in Saturday’s $250,000 San Francisco Mile S. (G3) at Golden Gate. The ultra-competitive contest appears to be a fine betting endeavor with numerous logical contenders signed on for the eight-furlong feature.

My co-top pick for the tilt is the Jeff Mullins-trained #6 Evening Sun (6-1), who has been victorious in three of his six outings since arriving in the states. The British-bred son of Muhaarar was consistent last campaign and looks to have made some improvement this season, coming in with a pair of very good efforts in 2022. Five-year-old gelding has been a bit headstrong at times, but he settled last time and made a powerful late run while overcoming some traffic in his allowance triumph at Santa Anita.

The bay comes in fresh for his first stakes try in the U. S., and I feel that he will sit a really nice voyage a few lengths off of a contested pace prior to getting first run in the lane on the deeper closing types. Brice Blanc will be in the stirrups.

Richard Mandella’s #14 Ecrivain (9-2) wasn’t done any favors when being assigned the widest post in the field, but the chestnut adds blinkers and rates a good chance with improvement off of his initial try since coming in from France. The Group 3 hero was a solid third in a deep allowance race in his first try of 2022, and the Lope De Vega chestnut figures to move forward second off the shelf on Saturday. The five-year-old is a top-three must-use with Jessica Pyfer in the silks.

I will key the aforementioned duo on top, while including the talented #2 Indian Peak (10-1), the Richard Baltas-conditioned #4 Vanzzy (4-1), stakes winner #8 Delaware (20-1), and sharp local allowance victor #12 Tom’s Surprise (12-1), underneath.

San Francisco Mile Exotics Wagers

• $2 exacta: 6,14 with 2,4,6,8,12,14 ($20)
• $2 trifecta 6,14 with 2,4,8,12 with 6,14 ($16)
• $2 trifecta 6,14 with 6,14 with 2,4,8,12 ($16)
• $.10-cent superfecta key 6,14 with 2,4,6,8,12,14 ($12)