by Joe Quillen
Friday 6/21 – Belmont at the Big A Race 2
We stay at Belmont at The Big A for today’s Quills Picks Winners, and today we have an early race on the card. We have two-year-old fillies going six furlongs on the turf. We have nine fillies entered here, and most of them are making their first career starts here today, so this will be a difficult race to handicap. But nonetheless, I will take a crack at it here for this race that goes postward at 1:34 pm Eastern time.
Favored in this juvenile maiden race is the 5 Good Long Cry (5/2 morning line). She faded in her debut at Gulfstream Park last month. She debuted in a stakes race which is a tough spot and returns facing a maiden cast of mostly first timers. I would expect a better effort here and a chance to win this race against inexperienced fillies.
The 7 Abientot (5/1 ML) is a first-time starter that should like both the surface and the distance here. Her sire Not This Time has 19% winners with two-year-olds and 16% winners in turf sprints. She had some nice works leading toward the debut today.
The 6 Burner Account (8/1 ML) is also a first-time starter who like the 7 is a Mark Casse trained filly. She worked with the 7 from what it appears on June 2nd in a very fast work. If that’s a sign, she might be there with the other Casse trained filly here at the end.
The 2 The Sugars (8/1 ML) ran in a race that was rained off the turf in her debut and dind’t show that much. Her turf pedigree is on the dam’s side (that is, her mother’s side). She might be worth a play if you think the pedigree will help her today.
I’m going to eat some chalk here with the favorite Good Long Cry. That race that she had on the turf last month at Gulfstream Park was tougher than this race. I think the experience of that race will help her in a race that has a ton of first timers here. I’ll go 5-6-7-2 and my play is $20 to win on the 5. Good luck everyone.
Check out my show “Also Eligible” on Saturday mornings at 10 am Eastern/7 am Pacific as AJ Johnson and I discuss the big races, the latest news in horse racing and much more! This Saturday, we will definitely be looking at the Ohio Derby from Thistledown in suburban Cleveland. Additional races will be determined for this week’s show.