Features Packed With Exotic Contenders; $44 Winner At Flamboro Tops Win Prices; H2W Has 58-Percent Across The Board

It was another productive week with features and our horses-to-watch (H2W) list with the better-priced contenders excelling and choices turning out to be obvious to the public becoming moot. Here is the chronological analysis of our suggested contenders.
 
Thursday, Feb. 22

Saratoga harness opened and it’s not much of a surprise that the first Pick 3 of the meet was won by three-straight public choices, paying a miserable $2.90. However, if you were using the favorite in leg one and our Partners For Picks’ first choice, EL Dartsmayboy ($5.40, $3.60), you cashed on an $8.00 exacta. In leg one our second choice, Wish Granted (3-1) finished fourth. We were fifth in the second two legs with Angel Or Terror (9-2) and Hanover The Art (9-2), respectively, with the leg-two counterpart Heavenly Bet (13-1) finishing sixth.

 
Friday, Feb. 23

We engaged in a Power Plays attack at Miami, using Race 4, and came out with some very lively contributions to the exacta, the 10-cent superfecta and the 50-cent trifecta.

The race was won by the 8-1 shot that wasn’t our choice. Our 8-1 shot, Sheatrottin Kid, finished eighth. However, our other choices were right there participating in exotic action.

In the exacta we handed the place horse, Parkhill Lancelot ($10.80, $13.00 ok). In the trifecta we added the third element, B Prayer ($5.80). Finishing fourth was our other contender, Honey B (5-2), who completed the superfecta.

Each single-race exotic, topped with the crowd’s 8-1, was completed by our choices. The exacta paid $265.00, the trifecta paid $307.05 and the superfecta was worth $360.19.

Also that evening, Yonkers’ fans loved our single contender, Drunken Desire A, making him the favorite. A 4-1 shot beat Drunken Desire A, who finished fifth.

Saturday, Feb. 24

All three features were at the Meadowlands. Our three suggested contenders came from cancelled races at the Meadowlands last week. None of them performed to our advantage and two of them lost very badly. The best accomplished was a fifth finish for Iwillmakeyousaywow (5-1). He was beaten by a 19-1 shot in a race with the favorite second. In the middle and the last feature for the night, both of our contenders, May I Cruise West (18-1) and Ever Again (34-1), finished eighth. The former was beaten by the public’s second choice, the latter by the race favorite.

All losers in our selected features appear the following week in the H2W list except any that raced in a feature after already listed once on the H2W.

TwinSpires Harness Blog:
Severe Race Coverage For Harness Bettors


H2W LIST RESULTS

The H2W results list across-the-board prices. Also, exactas listed are included when a H2W horse finishes second with a race favorite or the first two finishers making up the exacta are H2W horses (an asterisk appears when both horses were listed to complete a cold exacta). The note “ok” determines that prices published are correct even when a show price exceeds a place price or any or all of the prices are the same. This week, there were 31 active horses (a 23-percent win hit rate and a 58-percent ATB [across-the-board] hit rate).

Please note that some H2W results reflect win, place, show and exotic results occurring by press time but some horses race after the blog is posted (we list them the following week) It is up to you to follow horses that have not performed before this weekly review

Winners

Windemerenightlife, $44.20, $9.90, $3.90, Flamboro
Walter White, $8.20, $4.60, $3.80, Miami
Sky Is The Limit, $5.80, $3.30, $2.30, Yonkers
Workhardplayhard, $4.80, $3.00, $2.40, Meadowlands
Nevertrusthappiness, $3.90, $3.00, $2.50, Fraser
Walts Choice, $5.10, $3.40, $2.70, Fraser
Ben N Crosby, $3.40, $2.10, $2.10 ok, Pompano

Seconds

Hardts Or Bettor, $22.00, $4.40, Buffalo
No Reason At All, $10.60, $4.60 (Exacta $42.60), Pompano
Awake My Soul, $5.80, $3.40 (Exacta $13.20), Saratoga
Hot A Rena, $5.10, $3.90, Fraser
Classy Dragon, $3.20, $2.70 (Exacta $14.90), Woodbine

Thirds

Power Everywhere, $6.40, Northfield
Machlicious, $5.70, Woodbine
Rockin Machine, $4.40, Meadowlands
Thor, $3.60, Monticello
Mr Sideburns, $3.50, Buffalo
Iamarichcamto, $2.90, Fraser


News & Notes

Here’s another driver’s-skein test, this one from Feb. 23 at the Meadows, where Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. used his day off from Northfield to steer in 10 races, winning five. Ronnie passed our flat-bet profit test thanks to one great win mutuel worth $29.40. His penultimate high price was $9.40 and the rest were normal public choices. Ronnie raced raced in each of the 10 events, costing $20.00 to follow. He returned $53.80 to those using him as the sole handicapping factor of the day. Again, it was the highest price that made the profit. Among his five losers was a race favorite, finishing second.

It was a losing choice if you went with Austin Siegelman’s four wins on the Feb. 22 Monticello program because his highest win price was $6.30. He lost five races and that cost his loyal flat-bet-profit fans 30 cents, as a return on his four wins was $17.70.

The Meadows resumed racing after a hiatus due to horses’ illness. Track administrators hope has to replace lost racing days by increasing the weekly racing schedule from three to four days per week in October and November and by eliminating previously scheduled breaks in May, July and September.

Pocono Downs announced its 2018 racing schedule. The season includes hosting the Breeders Crown for the third time (TwinSpires harness coverage will be live). Opening night is set for March 17 with a 7:00 p.m. post for all race nights except Easter Sunday at 5:00 p.m. and all three thoroughbred Triple Crown nights. In the month of March, racing continues on Tuesday, March 20; Saturday, March 24; Sunday, March 25; Tuesday, March 27 and Saturday, March 31. Beginning in April, the track will move to its permanent schedule of Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with no racing on Monday, April 2 and Monday, Sept. 10.

Extraordinary Extras

Indulge in many standardbred topics at my Hoof Beats blog titled Vast Performances.