Friday’s Best Bet: Abhita can pick up speed at Santa Anita
Friday’s sixth race at Santa Anita is an optional-claiming event for California-bred fillies and mares traveling one mile on the turf course. The scheduled post time is 6:36 p.m. EDT.
Click here for Santa Anita entries and results.
No. 1 Abhita (4-1) rallied to miss by a neck in a similar flat-mile turf affair Feb. 15, and winner Ruff Ride clicked right back March 1. Hector Berrios strings along, and she will try to get involved from off the pace.
No. 6 Court Snort (3-1) exits back-to-back wins on the main track. She handles turf, and Flavien Prat got to know her in a stalk-and-pounce win as the even-money favorite Feb. 16. She should get pace to chase.
No. 4 Jessebear (6-1) is a relatively consistent turf router. She fired trifecta shots in her last four turf starts at this distance and can stalk or close.
No. 7 Illhaveanotherkiss (5-1) set a fast pace and weakened to fourth in a similar flat-mile turf affair Feb. 15. She removes blinkers and might relax better for Antonio Fresu.
No. 5 True Patriot (6-1) makes her first start since April. She graduated in a flat mile turf race at Del Mar in 2022 and lost all five starts since. She dropped all six local turf attempts and landed the place on four occasions.
Wagers
No. 1 to win
Exacta 1-6/1-4-6
Trifecta 1-5-6-7/1-5-6-7/4
Recent Best Bet winners
March 1 – Princess of Me ($5.80), exacta ($11.80)
March 3 – Du Jour/Easter exacta ($28.20)
March 6 – Spikezone/Just Beat the Odds exacta ($7.80), trifecta ($22.40)
Last Thursday – Insensitive ($5.00)
Saturday – Sweet Azteca/Adare Manor/Green Up trifecta ($94.60)
Sunday – Medoro/Zona Verde exacta ($15.20), trifecta ($33.60)