Ragozin Insider: Raven Run

Each year the Breeders’ Cup serves up quite a daily double. It produces an array of the year’s best races along with a coupled entry of some of the season’s most perplexing handicapping challenges.

With the Breeders’ Cup just two weeks away, handicappers searching for a puzzle upon which to sharpen their skills would be wise to focus on Saturday’s $250,000 Lexus Raven Run Stakes (G2) at Keeneland Race Course. The seven-furlong sprint on the synthetic Polytrack surface brings together 14 evenly matched three-year-old fillies and is about as close to a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma as one might find at a racetrack.

It is a baffling contest that has a vulnerable favorite, a couple of horses who figure to bounce after career-best efforts, and even a shipper with seven straight wins trying a synthetic surface for the first time.

Basically, the Raven Run is one of those races that explains why the “all” button was created for multi-race wagers. Yet, for all the headaches it may spawn, all of this confusion just might produce a very rewarding payoff—if you are fortunate enough to key on the right horse.