We head north of the border today for Assiniboia Downs’ sixth race tonight. We have an interesting race here of two-year-old maidens going five furlongs. Post time for tonight’s feature race is for approximately 10:40 pm Eastern time.
Favored in tonight’s race is the 3 Bubbly Talkin (5/2 morning line). She is taking on the boys here and gets an extra three-pound allowance in this race. She faded in her debut last month here at Assiniboia and will have blinkers off here for this race.
On the rail is the 1 Frankly (3/1 ML) who showed interest in the stretch but was not beating the filly who ended up a troubled second in a stakes race last time out. She should improve here with a trainer that wins 28% of the time with two-year-olds.
The 5 Heysweetdarlin (7/2 ML) is a first-time starter who has a nice work on August 9 but did not have another workout for 18 days. His sire Saturdaynitelights is 2 for 9 with first-time starters but is 0 for 2 with two-year-old firsters. But you can argue that the sample size is too small to say there is a trend.
Drawing the outside post is the 8 Counter Command who makes his debut tonight. His sire also has a small sample size but Counterforce’s offspring are winning at 22% as a two-year-old first times. He has some nice breeding here with Smart Strike as the grandsire.
Many of these horses are first time starters, and also with the meet ending in two weeks, some owners and trainers are trying to get a race or even two races in before the Winnipeg track closes up shop for the season.
I admit, this is an interesting race, but it’s not a race that knocks your socks off. You have to guess with the first-time starters and which horse that has had a race will improve.
I am going to take a chance on the horse on the outside, the 8 Counter Command. Being on the outside, she will not be in the gate long unless another horse acts up. We do not have an idea if this horse will be close to the front or the back of the pack, but I imagine he will be close to the pace if he is ready to go.
I’m going to take the 8 in this race and call this race 8-1-5-3. My play is $20 to win on the 8. Best of luck everyone!
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