How to bet the Bertrando Stakes

A total of six California-bred runners will travel one mile on the Los Alamitos surface in Saturday’s $100,000 Bertrando S. The race will seemingly go through Bob Baffert’s #3 Cowboy Mike, who is a head bob away from being unbeaten in 2024. By Smiling Tiger, the homebred has been solid this year and was very game in his latest offering when dueling for the lead for the duration of a high-level allowance event. 

Bertrando Wagers

• $25 trifecta 3 with 2,6 ($50)

The four-year-old chestnut was a facile allowance victor on the course in September, and he shows a pair of bullet morning drills in preparation for this race, as well. He has pace but doesn’t need the lead in order to win, and I envision him sitting an ideal voyage from second in the early going under the guidance of Edwin Maldonado. 

A pair of horses could challenge the top pick, including #6 Lovesick Blues. Trained by Steve Miyadi, the six-year-old son of Grazen has settled for minor awards in five of his six attempts this year, but he has class to him and was also runner-up in the heat in 2023. 

The consistent gelding has been coming from off of the pace in his sprint runs leading up to Saturday, but he could find himself a bit closer to the early tempo on the stretch out in distance on Saturday. He will break from the outside slot beneath Kyle Frey, who has been aboard in his last three outings. 

#2 Dick Best is a question mark from a class standpoint, but the transition to the dirt in his latest performance was a great one. The Librado Barocio trainee led throughout when defeating first-level allowance foes at Santa Anita most recently, and it was the way he did it that impressed. The Stanford gelding went fairly quick early, and fairly swiftly late, and he will likely be sent from the break in this one in hopes of repeating his last run. He could be dangerous if left up top for too long with Ricardo Gonzalez in the stirrups.