Friday's Best Bet: Pretty Birdie can dart away in Matron
Friday’s ninth race at Oaklawn Park is the $250,000 Matron Stakes for fillies and mares dashing six furlongs on the main track. The scheduled post time is 5:58 p.m. EDT.
Click here for Oaklawn Park entries and results.
No. 3 Pretty Birdie (7-2) is dangerous when she gets out there and sets the tempo. She has gone wire to wire multiple times and might be able to clear off early under David Cabrera.
No. 6 Wicked Halo (2-1) captured four stakes races last year for Steve Asmussen. Her tactical speed should lead to a nice trip.
No. 2 Matareya (5-2) had an excellent sophomore campaign in 2022 for Brad Cox. She smartly captured the Beaumont, Eight Belles and Acorn, and was last seen landing the show in the Test Stakes. She is at her absolute best in longer sprints but did capture an allowance event by open lengths in her lone attempt at six panels. Her winning pilot Flavien Prat stays put, and the versatile sort will probably work out a decent tactical trip behind honest fractions.
No. 7 Samurai Charm (10-1) goes back on Lasix, and that might be the key to her running a quality race and spicing up the exotics. Peter Miller’s relatively consistent mare is 7-for-15 lifetime.
No. 5 Teddy’s Barino (7-2) always ran her race on fast dirt in California, and she ships for the first time.
Get Jarrod’s Santa Anita analysis.
Wagers
No. 3 to win
Exacta 3-6/3-6-7
Trifecta 2-3-5-6/2-3-5-6/7
Recent Best Bet winners
March 1 – Wupkar/Gigablast/G's Squeeze trifecta ($43.80)
March 3 – Outright ($10.20), exacta ($36)
March 8 – James Aloysius ($4.80), trifecta ($88)
March 12 – Ballet Dancing ($11.40)
March 13 – Baton ($3.80)
March 17 – Alice Marble ($2.80)
March 18 – Princess Bettina/Comanche Country exacta ($18.80), trifecta ($81.40)
March 20 – Candy for Carmel/Good Culture exacta ($72), trifecta ($143.60)
Saturday – West Will Power ($7.20), exacta ($15.60)
Monday – Tiergarten/Precocious Times/Cheekiest trifecta ($89.80)