Santa Anita: How to bet the New Year's Day $10,251 Super High 5 carryover

Editor's update: Santa Anita canceled Sunday after overnight rain.

Happy New Year!

Santa Anita is starting off 2023 on a high note. The fifth race on Sunday's holiday card features a $10,251 carryover in the $1 Super High 5. Pursuing a non-jackpot prize pool sounds like a perfect way to kick off the year.

Race 5 (4:59 p.m. ET) is a six-furlong maiden special weight open to fillies and mares bred in California. With eight horses in the entries, there are only 6,720 possible outcomes—not an unmanageable number by any means.

One of the key contenders is #1 A Little Bit Crazy (7-2). A top-four finisher in all seven of her starts, A Little Bit Crazy has run well in her last two starts over this track and class level. She posted a career-best 83 Brisnet Speed rating when finishing third at Santa Anita on Oct. 28, a race from which the top two finishers returned to win their next starts. Then A Little Bit Crazy ran second on Dec. 3 at Del Mar, earning an 80 Brisnet Speed rating.

A Little Bit Crazy hasn’t missed the trifecta in three dirt starts and owns the second-highest Brisnet Speed rating in Sunday’s field. More importantly, she has early speed and is drawn on the rail, setting the stage for a favorable ground-saving trip on the front end. There isn’t a crazy amount of pace on paper, so A Little Bit Crazy should have every chance to record another top-three finish.

The other main speed horse is #8 Kiss My Kat (4-1), a definite wildcard with winning potential. The daughter of Curlin hasn’t run since her October 2021 debut over this track, distance, and class level, when she set fast fractions of :21.88 and :44.75 before weakening to finish third with an 82 Brisnet Speed rating.

It’s hard to know what to expect from Kiss My Kat off such an extended layoff, except that she’s been training up a storm at Santa Anita in recent weeks, capping off a flashy work tab with a bullet half-mile in :46 flat. It’s possible Kiss My Kat will fire a big shot off the break for trainer Kristin Mulhall, who wins at a decent 17% rate with horses returning from layoffs of 90 days or more.

#6 Whimsical Heir (5-2) and #5 Bold Choice (4-1), third and fourth behind A Little Bit Crazy on Dec. 3, are other logical contenders. And we can’t overlook the fast-working #3 Scatchmejamin (12-1), who ran second by a nose in a 1,000-yard maiden special weight open to Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos three months ago.

So how should we bet the Super High 5? We’ll take a shot betting Kiss My Kat on top. Underneath we’ll emphasize A Little Bit Crazy and Whimsical Heir before spreading deeper for the remaining slots.

• $1 Super High 5: 8 with 1,6 with 1,6 with 3,5 with ALL ($16)
• $1 Super High 5: 8 with 1,6 with 3,5 with 1,6 with ALL ($16)
• $1 Super High 5: 8 with ALL with 1,6 with 1,6 with 3,5 ($16)
  Total: $48

Good luck!