Welcome to the 2018 Stay Lucky season! You will notice new prizes and smoother performance for the new season, along with presenting sponsor Equestricon!

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve downloaded the app and are ready to start picking winners. If you have not yet downloaded Stay Lucky, what are you waiting for?

Get the iOS version of the app here.

The Android version of the app on Google Play can be downloaded here.

Stay Lucky offers participants the opportunity to win great prizes by stringing together winners in Thoroughbred races. Unbroken streaks of five, seven, nine, 14, 17 and 20 reward the players with a prize or choice of prizes. Terms and conditions apply.

The object is simple: pick winners from North American graded stakes races that draw at least six entrants. Races will be scored in real time but streaks will be updated only once daily to make sure they are scored in the correct order.

Pick as many races each weekend as you like, but be sure to play at least one race every weekend or your streak will be reset.

This weekend is highlighted by the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes and the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, both $1 million races on Saturday at Parx Racing for 3-year-old fillies and males, respectively.

Saturday, Sept. 22

Noble Damsel Stakes (3:07 p.m. ET): This one looks like a coin-flip race between Chad Brown’s two talented fillies Uni (#2) and Dream Awhile (#3). It’s not a great betting race or Stay Lucky race, unless one of the two scratches, in which case the other would immediately be a top play this week.

Gallant Bob Stakes (4:14 p.m. ET): I expect Firenze Fire (#10), the 2-1 morning-line favorite, will be a heavy, heavy favorite come post time, but I’m going to stay away just because I think Engage (#4) is close to his equal. He finished only a head behind him in a Grade 1 race last time out despite a very rough trip and I think there are a couple of others in here capable of an upset.

Cotillion Stakes (4:55 p.m. ET): Monomoy Girl (#2) already has beaten three of her opponents in here, including the second and third choices behind her on the morning line. With eight wins and a second in nine career starts, Monomoy Girl is the top play this week.

Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash Stakes (5 p.m. ET): This looks like a balanced field to me, but I could see giving a slight edge to Switzerland (#1) over Lewisfield (#8), who loves this racetrack, and The Man (#7), who is 6-for-7 at this distance.

Kelso Handicap (5:18 p.m. ET): I think this is an ideal spot for Battle of Midway (#1), who probably was a little short in the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Stakes on Aug. 25 when he ran second in his first start since winning the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. I expect we’ll see a big race from him.

Pennsylvania Derby (5:45 p.m. ET): I love Hofburg (#2) and thought he was poised to run a huge race in the Grade 1 Runhappy Travers Stakes in August before a fever forced him to be scratched. But I’ve been surprised by how well McKinzie (#8) has trained for his first start in more than six months, and Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has won two of the last four editions of this race. I’m torn, but I lean toward McKinzie, who is the faster horse.

Charles Town Oaks (10:15 p.m. ET): I like locally-based Late Night Pow Wow (#3) over some of the shippers coming from powerhouse barns out of graded stakes. It might come back to haunt me, but a two-turn race going seven-eighths of a mile offers some home-track advantage and this filly has won four straight.

Sunday, Sept. 23

Gallant Bloom Handicap (5:18 p.m. ET): All but one of the runners her has a win at Belmont Park, and Lewis Bay (#3) with three wins and two seconds and #4 Highway Star (5-for-9) and #7 Your Love (3-for-4) seem to really love “Big Sandy.” It’s far from a sure thing, but I do expect Lewis Bay to run a big one so she’s the play.

Mike’s Top 2 Stay Lucky Plays

(33 winners from 82 top plays in 2018)

1. Monomoy Girl (Cotillion Stakes)

2. Battle of Midway (Kelso Handicap)