How to bet the 2021 Perryville Stakes

A total of nine sophomores will travel seven-eighths on the dirt at Keeneland in Saturday’s $150,000 Perryville S. Kentucky Derby (G1) alum #1 Soup and Sandwich is the one to beat in the dash, and I will use the son of Into Mischief as the key in all of my wagers.

Trained by Mark Casse, the Live Oak homebred left a fine impression of himself with dominant tallies in a maiden special weight tilt at Gulfstream Park, followed by a facile allowance victory at Tampa Bay Downs to start his career. Sent to the Grade 1 ranks following those two performances, the gray colt led to the top of the stretch in the Florida Derby (G1) prior to finishing a clear second.

Soup and Sandwich attended the pace while second early in the Run for the Roses before abruptly fading to the back of the pack under Tyler Gaffalione. The three-year-old colt has been on the sidelines since that outing, but he is training in smart fashion and seems to have landed in a very reasonable spot for his return. He possesses good gate presence and will be forwardly placed from the start on Saturday.

#9 Runway Magic showed improvement in his second try with blinkers when running off to a nice allowance tally most recently. The Tom Drury trainee has not been ultra consistent to this stage of his development, but he has flashed considerable ability on occasion and may be ready to put it all together in his Keeneland debut. Brian Hernandez, Jr. will guide the top-three threat.

Chad Brown’s #6 Pipeline broke through with a stout maiden victory at Saratoga last time out and could take another step forward while making his stakes bow. The bay son of Speightstown owns a strong turn of foot and lands in a field with a good amount of early pace signed on. John Velazquez will be in the stirrups.

Perryville Stakes Wagers

• $15 exacta 1 with 6, 9 ($30)
• $1 superfecta 1 with 6, 9 with 6, 9 with all ($12)
• $1 superfecta 1 with 6, 9 with all with 6, 9 ($12)