Matchmaker Has Three Of Four; ‘Levy’ Losses; Top Winners Pay Double-Digits; 52 Percent On The Board

Making up for last week’s dull horses-to-watch winners was this week’s rebound, with a good bunch coming through for us and a whopping win percentage. Here’s the success and failure rundown from features: Thursday, March 28 Our Power Plays redux at Saratoga found the New York track complicit with its trend of crowd-pleasing favorites, Our four contenders to include in exotics were doused by public choices, leaving us only one payoff, a third from Awake My Soul ($3.00). Going off the public’s third choice, she made it into the $116.00 trifecta in which the top pair of elements was a public second-choice winner and a public first-choice winner. Making it into the $17.30 superfecta was another of our contenders, Double Joy (6-1). Then The Time To Win (31-1) finished fifth and Wonderful World (44-1) finished eighth. TwinSpires BET BACK Hoosier We offered three picks for the TwinSpires BET BACK offer on Hoosier’s opening program and it went well. We began with a winner, King Lil Joe ($14.20, $6.40, $3.60) in the meet’s second race. Next, we were way out of it with a disappointing mile from Roll With Howie (5-1). Then, we finished second in a huge upset across the board. Our choice, Red Scooter ($15.20, $6.20) eluded all but us. The two losers will appear in the next Hoosier H2W list. Friday, March 29, Though prices have not been high, there has been value in some of the Matchmaker’s division winners and we have been steadily on the side of most through leg two. In leg three there were four divisions and we backed three of them, as did most participating bettors. Our three of four victories began in division two with Bettors Joy N ($3,50, $2.10, $2.10 ok). Again, under the circumstances of this field, including its brevity, odds on was fair for one of the series’ the top contenders. Our exacta partner hoped to help raise the price of a combo but Freakonomics (18-1) finished fourth. In the third division we were surprised the crowd went with our top contender, though we still liked the price as we won with Seashift N ($5.20, $2.30, $2.10). Here, our second choice, Betterb Chevron N ($2.10), made the triple happen. In the nightcap it was pretty much a pass unless you were convinced that Shartin N ($2.20, $2.10 n/s) would take it easily, which was the case from the great mare. We tried to make a price out of the exotics but our outside contenders finished fifth and sixth, respectively; they were Magic Forces (25-1) and Write Me A Song (29-1). Our sole loss was the first division. Beaten by the public’s second choice, we finished fifth with Queen Lostris N (18-1). Saturday, March 30 The Levy series’ third leg was cruel to our contenders and the bad news began with the first division, as a 67-1 shot won, while our 6-1 shot, Major Crocker A ($6.10), squeezed onto the board third. The public’s second choice won the next division, while we suffered from an awful mile with Luciano N (88-1), finished fifth. The third division was won by a 10-1 shot, while our 20-1 Bellows Binge took fifth. The penultimate division was another miscalculation with so-called speed contender Mach It So (8-1) burning out early as the public choice won. Finally, there was no mercy for us as Lockton Luck A (19-1) was only able to get fifth as the public’s second choice won. 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 58 active horses (a 22-percent win hit rate and a 52-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 weeks) It is up to you to follow horses that have not performed before this weekly review. Winners Bellas Quik, $22.80, $8.60, $4.00, Northville Keystone Dalton, $14.80, $3.40, $2.40, Buffalo Docdor Friskie, $14.10, $5.00, $3.40, Northfield Fits Big, $13.80, $4.00, $3.20, Meadows Qing Qong Bluechip, $11.60, $5.90, $3.90, Saratoga AJs Sinfully Wicked, $8.20, $4.80, $3.60, Northville Chuckabuck, $7.20, $3.40, $2.80, Freehold Catch An Ace, $6.00, $3.20, $2.20, Yonkers King Of The Crop, $5.20, $2.40, $2.20, Cal-Expo Muscle Fashion, $4,20, $2.40, $2.40 ok, Pocono Rock Lights, $3.80, $2.80, $2.40, Dover Bearly Behavin, $2.60, $2.20, $2.20 ok, Northville Pappy Go Go, $2.60, $2.10, $2.10, Pocono Seconds Bettors Price, $12.20, $6.40, Freehold Speak English, $5.80, $3.00, Cal-Expo Sports Tale, $4.80, $2.70 (Exacta $16.40), Western Fair For A Better Time, $4.70, $2.10, Buffalo Alverez, $4.40, $2.80, Northfield Rakin It In, $3.50, n/s (Exacta $8.90), Monticello Bilbo Hanover, $3.00, $2.40, Pocono Harveybear, $2.80, $2.40 (Exacta $11.60), Northville Shady City, $2.40, Pocono Thirds Golfgirl, $12.20, Flamboro Silent Rescue, $7.20, Cal-Expo Quite A Delight N, $4.60, Yonkers Heaven Rocks, $3.70, Buffalo Miss Dollar Mam, $3.60, Northfield Givemeonemoreshot, $2.60, Northville Wings Of Speed, $2.60, Meadowlands Blush Hanover, $2.20, Meadowlands News & Notes Harrah’s Hoosier Park began its 26^th harness racing season on March 29. Every other week, TwinSpires offers special deals for harness players focusing on the great racing at Indiana’s only pari-mutuel track for harness racing. We began on opening weekend with a BET BACK option to assist bettors during the usually rough beginning of a race meet. Over the next few months TwinSpires and this harness blog, will make more special offers available to Hoosier players in their wagering campaigns at Hoosier. Look for special Hoosier picks and handicapping information during those offers at this TwinSpires harness racing blog. The great pacer-turned-sire Captaintreacherous is presenting some mighty sons and daughters in 2019. Now, one of his colts eligible to the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup was impressive qualifying action on March 28 at WoMo. Nicky Comegna-trained Capitano Italiano erased a 12 ¾ -length deficit in a single quarter and then swept to a win at the next call. Capitano Italiano paced home with a :27.4 final quarter. His margin of victory was 4 lengths; the win time was 1:55. Capitano Italiano made seven starts at tw, missing the board twice. He won two with a pair of seconds and a third, taking his mark of 1:53.2. Speaking of the Cup, winner Lather Up is eyeing another season. His connections resisted a start to a breeding career to compete on the track again in 2019. On March 27the millionaire son of I’m Gorgeous donned his harness for the first time since November 2018. Lather Up took to the track during a Dover Downs’ morning qualifying session. The four-year-old campaign prep, The Clyde Francis trainee raced to victory by 2 ¾ lengths in 1:56.3. Extraordinary Extras Indulge in my monthly columns, Alternative Actions and Bettors Banquet at Harness Racing Update