Saturday’s Best Bet: Echo Zulu can wire the field in Ballerina
Saturday’s 10th race at Saratoga is the Grade 1 Ballerina for fillies and mares journeying seven furlongs on the main track. The scheduled post time is 4:55 p.m. EDT.
Click here for Saratoga entries and results.
No. 6 Echo Zulu (7-5) is 8-for-10 with a runner-up finish, she is 3-for-3 at Saratoga and is 2-for-3 with a runner-up finish at this extended-sprint distance. She was outstanding in the local Honorable Miss Handicap (G2) at six panels on July 26, and she easily could go all the way again.
No. 7 Goodnight Olive (9-5) is another win machine. The 8-for-10 mare is 2-for-2 at Saratoga and 6-for-7 at seven panels. Last year’s Ballerina and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner returned with a nice victory in the Madison (G1) in the spring. She finished a troubled third in the Derby City Distaff (G1) on May 6, and got up in the final strides in a slow-early, fast-late renewal of the Bed o’ Roses (G2) on June 17. Echo Zulu seems to have all of the advantages in this spot, and Chad Brown’s mare was faster last year, but I love the switch to a more comfortable post.
I shopped for a price underneath and landed on no. 3 Maryquitecontrary (15-1). Forget the Honorable Miss last time. Echo Zulu ran a hole in the wind that day, and this late-running mare had no shot in that compact field at a distance too sharp for her. She fired exacta shots in all six starts at seven panels, and she was only a length behind Goodnight Olive in the Madison on April 8.
No. 8 Caramel Swirl (8-1) is an extended-sprint specialist with stalking speed and the outside post. She was second to Goodnight Olive in this event last year. She captured the Vagrancy (G3) at Belmont on May 14 and stalked, led, and was third by a length in Goodnight Olive’s Bed o’ Roses last time.
Get Jarrod’s Del Mar analysis.
Wagers
Exacta 6-7
Trifecta key 6/3-7-8
Superfecta 6-7/6-7/3-8/3-8
Recent Best Bet winners
Aug. 4 – Bus Buzz ($5.80), trifecta ($82.80)
Aug. 5 – Carmelita's Man ($13.60), trifecta ($199.20)
Aug. 6 – Maltese Falcon/Panic Alarm/Agency trifecta ($173.40)
Aug. 17 – Rose Barton/Pegs A. K. Girl quinella ($14.80)
Sunday – Patches O’Houlihan ($6.30)
Friday – Eddie’s New Dream/Rose Maddox/Chancery Way trifecta ($149.80)