The holiday weekend brings forth a bevy of Graded Stakes races.

Starting out Saturday on the East Coast, Belmont Park plays host to three Grade 1 or 2s on Saturday and the Grade 2 Tom Fool on Sunday. The Prioress is a rare Grade 1 6-furlong sprint for fillies and has attracted a field of nine very evenly matched gals. There is sure to be good value to be had on any of the nine entrants. The Grade 2 Dwyer Stakes has a field of 7 all looking for their first black type. Of interest in this event is Warrior’s Reward. The likely post time favorite became the center of controversy recently when his jockey Calvin Borel was forced to choose between Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird, scheduled to race in the West Virginia Derby on August 1, and this colt, who is pointing to the Grade 1 Jim Dandy the same day. It says a lot that Borel would give up the mount on a Derby winner for this one. The other graded race on the card is the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap featuring Asiatic Boy and It’s A Bird. The former is coming back off three weeks rest and a 2nd place finish in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs.

The Grade 1 United Nations Handicap also goes Saturday at Monmouth Park. The race has drawn a field of nine, and any of the nine is a potential winner. Lots of familiar names in this one  - Better Talk Now, Brass Hat, Court Vision, Strike a Deal, and Presious Passion, just to name a few. This should shape up as a great betting race.

Churchill Downs cards the Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap where Thorn Song is likely to rule as the betting choice.

Rounding out the action on Saturday is the Grade 2 American Handicap at Hollywood Park. While the entire field was not available at press time it was expected to include last year’s winner Whatsthescript.

On Sunday Hollywood Park hosts the always interesting $700,000 Grade 1 American Oaks Invitational featuring a stellar international field. A lot of attention will be on Mrs Kipling, a Neil Drysdale trainee who drew the extreme outside post, but the race appears up for grabs. Two races later the veneralble Northern California based Siren Lure seeks to become a millionaire with a win in the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap.

I have been seriously handicapping the Northern California summer fair circuit for almost thirty years now. Along with Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields, these are the tracks that I bet on the most in my early wagering career. The circuit moves this week to lovely, Pleasanton for the Alameda County Fair. Affectionately called P-town by the locals, many of the NorCal trainers live in Pleasanton. With the recent closure of Bay Meadows, more horses are stabled here than ever before. Here are some tips and info for those of you that will be making wagers on the racing from Pleasanton this year. This is the schedule for the upcoming season:

Alameda County Fair (Pleasanton) (July 1st - July 19th)
Solano County Fair (Vallejo) (July 22nd - July 26th)
Sonoma County Fair (Santa Rosa) (July 29th - August 9th)
Humboldt County Fair (Ferndale) (August 13th - August 23rd)
California State Fair (Sacramento) (August 26th - September 7th)
The Big Fresno Fair (Fresno) (October 7th - October 18th)

Alameda County Fair (Pleasanton) (July 1st - July 19th) (Dark days - July 6, 7, 13, 14) - I currently live less than a mile from the fair grounds in Pleasanton and will attend more that half of the races. The first track was established on this property by the Bernal family back in the 1860’s. My earliest horse picking success happened in P-town. When I was four years old, my parents took me to the Alameda County Fair. We weren’t there in time for  the first few races, but caught the last ten. My parents would read off the names of the horses and I would pick one. I picked the winner in nine out of the ten races. My handicapping buddies joke that I’ve gone downhill ever since. I encourage any of you that can make it out to the fair to do so. The weather is always great, the racing competitive and the fair is a lot of fun.

In my opinion, you need to pay attention to the jockey factor during the fair season. I keep track of jockeys at the start of each meet and see if anyone appears to stand out. Russell Baze and Frank Alvarado battled it out for the jockey title during last year’s meet. Baze nipped Alvarado by a nose, and I expect these two to go “mano a mano” again this year. (Alvarado actually had a very profitable Return On Investment when betting him every race, especially when riding for trainer, Willam E. Morey.) Juan Ochoa is a good long shot jockey to use on your tickets when betting Pleasanton. Also, I had a couple of jockeys I keyed on for the Mule races and the Quarter Horse races during the entire fair season. Olivo Maldonado had an excellent record in Mule races and Gregorio Arriaga had a strong record in the Quarter Horse races.

Here are some trainers that had a good Pleasanton meet last year. Give extra credit for horses coming out of the barn of any of these conditioners:

Jerry Hollendorfer
Steve Miyadi
William E. Morey
Steve Sherman
John F. Martin
Leisa Belser
Kent Molinaro

Regarding any track bias or tendencies, the inside and middle of the track was the place to be in the sprint races. Forwardly placed horses had a big advantage in the sprints as well. In the route races, early speed was good, and horses stuck outside were at a decided disadvantage. Trailers that could close ground got up for second and third often in the routes.

One last thing, the TrackMaster product line will definitely give you an edge when playing the California fair circuit. The class and speed figures supplied for Quarter Horse, Arabian, and Mule races are a definite plus, especially if you are playing the early Pick Four. TrackMaster Plus Pro users are able to look up an individual jockey’s detailed statistics for the last year by track as well as the same info for trainers for the last five years. If you used these tools for Stockton, you were able to see how powerful the information can be.

Good luck betting the fairs this year and hopefully these tips can help you make a few extra dollars. Stay tuned for more tips from the TrackMaster Blog as the fair season progresses.

Craig Walker
TrackMaster Senior Product Development Specialist

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TrackMaster, an Equibase company, is your complete source for Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse and Harness Racing information. Products ranging from Thoroughbred Past Performances, Harness Racing Programs, and Thoroughbred Handicapping software to Horse Racing Picks from our experts, are provided for all levels of handicapping sophistication.

Great weekend for big race fans as the two best equines in North America, who both just happen to be fillies, are headlining Grade 1 races on both coasts. Both will be prohibitive favorites against small fields.

The Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont leads of the weekend’s action with Rachel Alexandra making her first start since defeating males in the Preakness Stakes. Only four other fillies are scheduled to line up against the superstar filly and on paper, it’s not even close. For any filly other than Rachel to win this would be the bigger than when Upset handed Man o’War his only defeat in the Sanford Stakes of 1919. So if Flashing forgets to stop, or opens up a huge lead and Rachel can’t catch her…or not. Rachel will probably never get out of cruising speed and still win this one.

On the West Coast, the “big filly” Zenyatta dwarfs her competition both in stature and number as she seeks to remain undefeated by winning her 11th straight start in the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park . Due to her size and come from behind style there is always a chance she could run into traffic issues, but jockey Mike Smith usually manages to keep her out of trouble and there is no filly in the country that can outrun Zenyatta once she gets rolling down the stretch. The rest of the field seems evenly matched so there may be some way to play the race using exotics.

Better betting opportunities might be found in the Grade 2 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows. The big name in the race and probable favorite is My Pal Charlie, who seems to always seems to find a way to lose. Value may be found in California shipper Victory Pete and maybe Secret Getaway. Jonesboro, a 7-year old ran the race of his life in the Texas Mile his last out, but can’t reasonably be expected to repeat that effort, but if he does he’ll win this. Wayzata won last year’s renewal of this event at 38-1 yet figures to be a longshot here once again.