Dan's Double: Saratoga Stakes Plays

Gambling
Penelope P. Miller/America's Best Racing

Dan’s Double of the week, featuring handicapping analysis from America's Best Racing's New York correspondent Dan Tordjman, is brought to you by Horseplayers.com, the official online qualifying site of the Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC) and National Horseplayers Championship (NHC). Horseplayers.com offers low-cost feeders every day and BCBC and NHC qualifiers every weekend, and it’s the only site where you can qualify for the $1 million BCBC. It’s free to sign up – click here to get information about registering and how to enter contests.

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Each Week, Tordjman will provide readers with his two best bets of the weekend and strategies for how to bet them. Tordjman will keep track of his return on investment (ROI) throughout the year and, as a bonus, he will also provide picks for a selection of the key races on the Triple Crown trail and the road to the Breeders’ Cup. Dan was able to manage a positive ROI for his plays in 2016 but was in the red for 2017. How will he do in 2018? To find out and to play along, come back every week and be sure to follow Tordjman on Twitter.

Saturday, Sept. 1

Saratoga Race Course, Race 9, $200,000 Saranac Stakes 

#2 March to the Arch: Hoping this one is coasting a little under the radar on the ship-in from Woodbine for Mark Casse, who hasn’t had the most memorable Saratoga meet. March to the Arch comes out of a win in the Toronto Cup which saw him put away next-out Breeders’ Stakes winner Neepawa, as well as Rose’s Vision who took down the Better Talk Now Stakes at Saratoga earlier this week. There’s speed to the inside with #1 Up the Ante and he should get some pressure from #5 Sand Dancer. March to the Arch should enjoy a nice ground-saving trip and show the kind of turn of foot that’s propelled to two consecutive impressive scores.

$10 Budget
$5 win and place on #2 March to the Arch ($10)

$25 Budget
$5 win, place and show on #2 March to the Arch ($15)
$1 exacta key box 2 over 1,3,4,8 ($8)

$50 Budget
$10 win, place, and show on #2 March to the Arch ($30)
$1 exacta key box 2 over 1,3,4,8,9  ($10)
$t trifecta 2,3 with 2,3 with 1,4,5,8,9 ($10)

Saratoga Race Course, Race 10, $350,000 Spinaway Stakes

#3 Virginia Eloise: After a blowout win on debut, this filly came back to finish a nice second in the Grade 2 Adirondack last out. It wasn’t so much that she flew late to finish second, it’s that Virginia Eloise ran so greenly earlier in the race and looked like she was entirely out of it. With another race under her belt and a tad more distance, she should be a lot better off. The main challenger here will be #7 Chasing Yesterday. She’s American Pharoah’s half-sister, she won by four lengths on debut at Del Mar, and she’s piloted by Mike Smith who flies in for this ride and the mount on Rally Cry in the Woodward. If she runs like she did at first asking, she may be tough to pass.

$10 Budget
$5 to win on #3 Virginia Eloise ($5)
$2 exacta box 3,7 ($4)

$25 Budget
$5 to win on #3 Virginia Eloise ($5)
$2 exacta box 3,7 ($4)
$1 trifecta 3,7 with 3,7,11,12 with 3,7,11,12 ($12)
$1 exacta 11,12 over 3,11,12 ($4)

$50 Budget
$10 to win on #3 Virginia Eloise ($10)
$5 exacta box 3,7 ($10)
$2 trifecta 3,7 with 3,7,11,12 with 3,7,11,12 ($24)
$1 exacta 11,12 over 3,7,11,12 ($6)

YTD BANKROLL: -$1,286.30

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