Get A Hunch, Bet A Bunch

Wet or dry, with half of the season in the books, it seems certain that the track has a bias toward speed horses. In other words, if they aren’t close early, they’re not likely to be much closer late.

That said, it doesn’t seem as if there is any horse that can steal today’s contentious eighth race, which brings out Fleet Triad, a horse for the course, for his winter debut. The sixth, at a mile, also has plenty of contention, but little early foot. Nonetheless, we’ll give late-running My Best Habit one more chance.

Many of today’s live horses have been close so often they’ve killed the odds, maybe even those in the new Running Pick 3.

Here are today’s selections:

FIRST: $5 daily doubles pairing CLOSE COVERAGE with STRIKE TO IGNITE and WINEMALL.

SECOND: $10 to win on STRIKE TO IGNITE. Parlay winnings to LOWER VALLEY GIRL in the seventh.

SIXTH: $5 quinella baseball of MY BEST HABIT, SAUCY SAM and PRAIRIE WALKER ($15).

SEVENTH: $20 to win on LOWER VALLEY GIRL and $5 quinellas pairing her with A MITE CAGEY and MANITO CLUB ($10).

NINTH: $1 trifecta box of TIME FOR BRIAN, J.B.’S GONE, PLAY BOY PLAY and TOMMY’S DIAMOND ($24).

Original bankroll: $2,000.

Saturday’s result: lost $39.20.

Present bankroll: $1,979.80.

, DataTimes