December 22, 2024

How to Bet the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Friday Card

Those familiar with my work may know me as an action junkie who enjoys multi-race wagers, but I am taking a different approach to this year’s Breeders’ Cup Friday, as I like one horse at a price and am confounded by the races around her.

As you can see from the grid below the waters get pretty deep when it comes to the Breeders’ Cup (as well they should), but we are narrow earlier on the card, and we’ll play a $54 all “A” Pick 5 to get things going. We’ll take a similar approach to the Pick 4 that begins in race 3, as an all “A” ticket there costs $45.

That brings us to race 6, which is one of the most important races on the card for multi-race bettors as it begins the Breeders’ Cup, ends the aforementioned early Pick 4, and begins the all-Breeders’ Cup Pick 4.

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf has one of my best bets of the weekend, which feels funny to say about a race I’m five deep in the “A” column and 12 deep on the grid, but #4 Madeline at 20-to-1 is a horse I want to play stretching out after pressing the pace on soft turf and getting a good post for her two-turn bow.

I’ll force myself to be right in the Dirt Mile and Distaff, as it is difficult for me to look past Sharp Azteca and Mor Spirit in that if I went any deeper I’d want almost all of them, which isn’t practical given my opinions in the juvenile turf races.

The Distaff goes through Elate on most tickets, but I’ll use the other three logicals except Stellar Wind on some tickets that end with 2,9 in the last.

Good luck today!