ITM Plus Saratoga coverage of Belmont week

PTF shares thoughts on races Wednesday/Early Double Thursday from NY

The wraparound Pick 4 concept that NYRA is playing with at the Belmont Stakes Festival is cool and they certainly get credit for doing something different. I’d be a lot more enthusiastic about the wagers had they been able to get the takeout to 15% rather than 24% and I wouldn’t have minded a higher minimum like $1 rather than the $0.50 they landed on. Having said all that, these feel like a good place for an additional writeup for Plus.

The first part of this piece will go out to our whole list so this is a good place for me to put in a plug. We’ll have a lot of extra content for Plus subs this weekend include the ever-popular Grid Picks from the team as well as extra articles and shows. Also, as always, you’ll get emails with rundowns of the picks from the free shows. It’s a great value at $50/month and even better if you just bite the bullet and sign up for the whole year because that includes, at no added cost, all our extra summer meets, BC, and next year’s Kentucky Derby package.

Enough shilling, back to chilling.

The first of these bets starts with Wednesday’s Mount Vernon (race 9) and and turf maiden that goes as race 10.

It concludes on Thursday with the Tremont Stakes (race 1) and ends with another turf maiden (race 2).

To paraphrase the Canadian immortals Loverboy, we better start from the start.

WEDS R9 SAR (Mt Vernon)

#1 SILVER SKILLET bounced back from a fourth-place finish in an allowance race to win an off-turf rendition of this race last year and then came right back to win the Port Washington (shout-out to the town where I grew up) as a heavy fav.

This year he exits a meh fourth in an allowance race once again, and perhaps that can set him up right. Last year in those good races she was loose and that doesn’t look the case here, Skillet should work out a trip under Rosario, who has ridden her well in the past. Prediction: it will get dusty in the bunker if Miguel Clement takes out the opening day feature at the Belmont Racing Festival.

I will not stand alone to kick things off. The pace angle could be #2 SPINNING COLORS and I’d like her on some tickets. I thought she was handled way too aggressively last time and while her previous try at this level was a flop in last year’s Yaddo, I think she could bounce back here at a price. Look for Johnny V to try and ration out that early speed.

B

I’ll back up with #10 WHATLOVELOOKSLIKE on the potential that there’s a class edge here coming off a steady diet of Grade 3 stakes where she ran with some credit. The post isn’t great, and it’s not like she was dominant when she faced NY-breds previously – she was 1 for 6 with the lone win coming loose on a glacial pace (in the ’23 Port Washington, no less). Still, according to the Beyers, she might be better now.