Super Screener: 8-1 top pick in the Challenger Stakes at Tampa

Saturday is Tampa Bay Derby (G2) day and five stakes are on tap at Tampa Bay Downs, including the main event that is a point-paying prep for the 2022 Kentucky Derby. 

In this week's edition of Super Screener, author Mike Shutty offers in-depth analysis and wagering strategies of select stakes action from around the country plus the late Pick 5 at Tampa Bay Downs. Two races prior to the Tampa Bay Derby, the $100,000 Challenger Stakes for older horses on the main track will go at Tampa and Super Screener has tabbed an 8-1 shot as its top choice. 

The Challenger going 1 1/16 miles features the returns of multiple graded-stakes winner Greatest Honour, who was a top Kentucky Derby prospect last year before being sidelined, and stakes winner Dynamic One for trainer Todd Pletcher. They are the top-two choices on the morning line. 

But for Super Screener, it's Pletcher's other runner that merits top billing: War Stopper. The 5-year-old son of Declaration at War, who was Grade 3-placed last year, returned from an eight-month layoff Feb. 5 and was never a factor in a Gulfstream Park allowance sprint. However, as Super Screener notes, that seven-furlong outing was meant as merely as a starting a point.

"Bettors jumped on him too soon as a sprint race was used as a prep for this," Super Screener opines. "In that start he showed great (energy) balance and shook off a lot of rust in the process. He'll sit a great trip here pressing...through modest fractions reserving a ton of energy for the stretch drive.

"(War Stopper) provides plenty of value in exchange for moderate risk."

The Challenger analysis is just a sliver of what's available in this week's Super Screener. Click here to view.

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