Santa Anita: How to bet the Eddie D. Stakes

The fall meet at Santa Anita kicks off on Friday, with a pair of graded stakes, including the $200,000 Eddie D. (G2).

Held at 5 1/2 furlongs over the turf course, the Eddie D. is an important steppingstone toward the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) at Keeneland. Two horses — California Flag (2009) and Stormy Liberal (2018) — have managed to win both races in the same year. Desert Code parlayed a seventh-place effort in the Eddie D. into an upset victory in the 2008 Turf Sprint.

Seven talented sprinters have been entered in the 2020 Eddie D., several of them frontrunners with an abundance of early speed. In theory, this could lend an advantage to late runners, but since speed is dominant over this course and distance (pacesetters prevail 45% of the time), I’m not keen to favor closers. Instead, I’ll bet whichever horse seems most likely to survive the battle for early supremacy and keep going down the homestretch.

The “speed of the speed” is #1 Wildman Jack. The winner of the Daytona (G3) over this course and distance in March, the 4-year-old son of Goldencents ran a huge race in the 6-furlong Bing Crosby (G1) at Del Mar last month. In his debut on dirt, Wildman Jack dueled for the lead through crazy fractions of :21.58 and :44.73, while racing extremely wide, over a track favorable to inside runners.

Despite these challenging circumstances, Wildman Jack led into the stretch and held on gamely to finish fourth, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths, while deep closers rallied to sweep the exacta. A return to turf and a cutback in distance should trigger a rebound from Wildman Jack, who only needs to work out a clean trip from his tricky rail draw.

Wildman Jack should start a fair price in the betting, so a win bet will be our primary play. I’ll also single him in the second half of a double, with #2 Qahira in Race 6, the Chillingworth (G3).

Race 6, $10 double: 2 with 1
Race 7, $20 to win on #1 Wildman Jack

Good luck!