How to bet the 2023 Matriarch Stakes

A fantastic cast of 12 fillies and mares will travel one-mile on the Del Mar lawn in the wildly competitive $300,000 Matriarch S. (G1) on Sunday. The affair has an abundance of early runners who will yield a wicked pace, and my top selections will center around the deeper closing types.

Matriarch Wager

• $1 trifecta 10,12 with 1,3,10,12 with all ($60)

I’ve long been a fan of multiple graded heroine #10 Fluffy Socks and will use her in all plays as she searches for her initial Grade 1 trophy. One of four in the field for conditioner Chad Brown, the daughter of Slumber is a graded winner on the course and had a decent prep for this when a late third in the Athenia S. at Aqueduct at nine panels. She cuts back in distance for this one.

Fluffy Socks has compiled a nifty 4-3-1-0 mark at one-mile in her career, and her stout late kick will be enhanced on Sunday. Irad Ortiz Jr. taking the reins is an added bonus. 

#12 Wakanaka will have to overcome the widest post in the field in order to win the contest, but the talented runner from the Bill Mott shedrow is good enough to come out on top with a sensible voyage beneath Jamie Spencer. The five-year-old daughter of Power always fires in the stretch, and the mare stretches back out after sprinting on the green in her last three assignments. Irish-bred bay hasn’t won in more than 12 months, but I still expect her to be a prominent figure inside the final furlong in the affair. 

Two-time Grade 3 victress #3 Surge Capacity was visually impressive in overcoming traffic to take the Valley View S. (G3) at Keeneland most recently for Brown. The Klaravich homebred is perfect from a pair of tilts at the eight-furlong distance, and the daughter of Flintshire will appreciate the fast pace in front of her to aid her solid turn of foot in the stretch. Joel Rosairo will take the sophomore back in the early stages before asking her for her run at the top of the lane. 

I’ll also include #1 Elounda Queen in her second attempt over U.S. sod. The chestnut daughter of Australia didn’t show a whole lot in the Queen Elizabeth II S. (G1) at Keeneland in October, but she has worked well in the interim and I’m expecting improvement on this occasion. Hector Berrios will be in the silks and the sophomore will be a square price.