Six Brave Horses Try To Knock Off The King

It’s not often that one can view a 9/5 favorite as an overlay, or at least a value bet, but King of the Cats is such a horse in Saturday’s South Dakota Sprint Special Stakes. The 2^nd ranked sprinter among older horses certainly isn’t a lock here, but does present a whole lot of advantages when the gates open up in South Dakota’s co-featured race, a 6 furlong dash on a dirt course expected to be fast. For example: In recent speeds: King has averaged almost 108 in his last 8 outings. The next highest average over the same race cycle is 103. In class: during the same 8 race stretch, King has finished in the money in 6 Graded Stakes, winning 4 of them. No other competitor has finished in the top 3 in ANY Graded races. Not to mention the fact that the favorite here has also won more than twice as much money as all of his competitors combined (!)  King of The Cats is also an early speed horse who has the inside post so he doesn’t have to travel any added ground to get the lead and the rail. And he also has a jockey on his back who’s winning this season at the ungodly rate of 24%. Aaafarms has this BB Sprint contender poised for a tuneup here to sharpen him up for Champion Day.

All that being said, the “On Every Given Saturday…” axiom still applies here. A number of horses in this race, on their best day, can give King of The Cats a run here, and, if the King falters at all, can take it from him. The other contenders in Post Position order:

Next to the King is the second favorite (at 3/1), Sealed Briefing. This four year old son of Deputy Minister has shown the speed ability to run with these, having posted a very solid 112 at 7 furlongs, some five races back. He’s a good solid stalker/closer, and should be up near the top of the pack at the finish line. May be a bit of an underlay though, at 3/1 in this company. The stable is betdahouse, but I’m not sure I’d do that in this race on this horse.

In the third gate is an interesting horse, 10/1 shot Place At The Table. The irt1 trainee has a gaudy record (5-2-0 from just 9 lifetime starts), and closes hard. The trouble is, most of that gaudy record has come from allowance races. He’s never faced the calibre of horseflesh he’s up against this time. Still, if he runs back to the kind of race he ran two starts ago, he has a shot to be gobbling up ground and getting a piece here.

Northern Swain(IRE), a slades2 charge, is one of the two horses besides King of The Cats to like to race up near the lead. A solid competitor, Northern Swain also may have class issues. He has raced in a number of ungraded stakes races, but won only one of them, and that was last year. But he will have a say in the pace, and if he functions as a rabbit to a suicide pace, one or more of the closers in this race may have to send him a thank you note. Probably doesn’t have enough in the tank to take this race wire to wire.

In the 5^th gate is Stoned Cold Crazy, from the zewango barn. Much like the afore-mentioned Place At The Table, this horse has done all of his best running in allowances. In fact, in his only two stakes races to date, he’s beaten a total of two horses (out of 20). Hasn’t shown the speed ability to take these on. Will have to run the race of his life to cash a check.

Bermuda Pirate is another very intriguing horse here, mostly because of his running style. Like Place At The Table, the Pirate is a stone closer, and will be flying at the end. Unlike the much less experienced Place, the Pirate has shown the speed figures to compete with these, such as a 111 eight back. If the pace does become an issue for the favorite, expect this buccaneer from the march2nd stable to come flying up to the wire, maybe even first.

On the outside is 6/1 shot Piscataway, the other horse who does his best racing up front. The problem here is those best times haven’t been anywhere near the quality of some of these, at least not in the recent past. Combined with the outside post leaves me to wonder if this katinka stables charge will be a factor here.