Thursday’s Best Bet: Excelerina is enticing at Turfway Park

Photo: Eclipse Sportswire

Thursday’s eighth race at Turfway Park is an optional-claiming event for fillies and mares traveling one mile on the all-weather track. The scheduled post time is 9:25 p.m. EST.

Click here for Turfway Park entries and results

No. 5 Excelerina (3-1) landed the place in an all-weather route in Ireland in 2021. She shipped to California and won back-to-back turf routes in 2022 for Phil D’Amato, and she landed the show in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine. William Morey took over the training duties this year, and she set the pace and missed by a neck in a turf route at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. The versatile mare has been stabled at Turfway Park since August. 

No. 7 Nom de Plume (5-1) was part of the trifecta in all four starts for Paulo Lobo. She was right there in both all-weather starts at Turfway. 

No. 6 Beach Walkn (4-1) captured an entry-level turf route at Keeneland on Oct. 18, and she exits a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Mrs. Revere. She landed the place in her career debut in a local sprint. 

No. 10 Chop Chop (5-2) missed by a nose in the Alcibiades Stakes last year and was the beaten favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She hit the board in four of six outings this year and gets in light with apprentice rider Axel Concepcion. 

Wagers

No. 5 to win

Exacta box 5-7

Trifecta 5-7/5-6-7-10/5-6-7-10

Recent Best Bet winners

Dec. 3 – Stay Hot ($6.60)
Dec. 9 – Catiche/Mouffy exacta ($30)
Dec. 11 – Masrour ($2.80), exacta ($8), trifecta ($22.80)
Dec. 12 – Empire Pass/Golden Tabby/Bucks Some trifecta ($43.40)
Last Wednesday – Flipping Fish/Henry's World/He’s In Charge trifecta ($202.60)
Saturday – War Campaign ($14.60), exacta ($54.80)
Monday - Young Squire ($8.40), exacta ($23.40), trifecta ($81.20)

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