Super Screener preview: Del Mar opens with big prices
The Oceanside Stakes, long the opening day feature of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club summer meeting, may be taking a back seat to its graded-stakes counterpart on Saturday's card, the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. However, bettors still have opportunity in the Oceanside, a one-mile race for 3-year-olds who have not won a stakes on turf.
Super Screener is coming into the Del Mar meeting hot after nailing the exacta cold in the Saratoga opening-weekend feature, the Diana Stakes (G1). It tabbed Whitebeam over Moira to the tune of $11.60 on the top pick winner and a 41-1 exacta.
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As for the Oceanside, Super Screener maestro Mike Shutty thinks both Formidable Man and King of Gosford are vulnerable at short prices, preferring instead Guy Named Joe as a Top Win Contender, Most Reliable Board Hitter and Top Value at 5-1 morning line. Rothschild is the other Top Win Contender and one of three long shots along with Blue Eyed George and Simplexity.
"As many as seven horses will be battling it out on the front end within two lengths of each other," Shutty projects. "Sitting in the catbird seat taking it all in stalking that wall of speed is Rothschild, who towers over this field on the Screener's Super Energy Reserve Index, a number that plays into the idea that he benefits from the pace set up."
As noted above, each screened race includes wagering strategy. Shutty does not shy away from swinging for the fences in the Oceanside, liberally using Blue Eyed George, Rothschild and Simplexity in exotic wagers at big morning-line prices.
This week's Super Screener also includes both graded stakes at Saratoga and the Haskell (G1) and other graded stakes from Monmouth Park.