PREAKNESS

Score for the day:

6 wins for 12 wagers
$42.60 for $24.00
$1.77 ROB

1-- Bond Fire, 2-1, if you're up this early. Whew. 10:30 post. Who's serving the Cheerios?
Bond Fire paid $4.60

2-- Colonial Silver, ML favorite, looks weak, even with the drop. His win at this level was off a turtle pace. Magical Gem and Love's Strong Heart are both worth 3/1.
Love's Strong heart placed.


3-- Easy Grades and Grey Dorian, if either goes off at 3/1 or better. At age 8, Easy Grades has 11 wins. Grey Dorian is 7/16 at age 4, but the wins are cheap ones.
Easy Grades showed.

4-- Suave Jazz and Known Back Home, whichever has best odds.
They finished 1-2, a $12.00 exacta.

5-- I can't believe they'd let Heros Reward off at the ML of 12/1. He is 4/6 at this kind of race. Won by a head last time even tho rider lost whip. I know he's outclassed, but this is a sprint on turf.
Hero paid $7.60.

6-- Street Magician. Toss that route race. Main rival Like Mom Like Sons is 4/4 but all on Toronto polytrack.
Street Magician paid $5.60

7-- Grigoreiva, the euro-star. Gained 15 lengths to just miss last time after a dumbass start.
"Failed to menace." I love that cliche.

8-- Diablolical seems the logical choice, but as always, everything depends on the tote. He's likely to go off at 3/5. Meanwhile, Talent Search, with 5 cheap wins, has never been tested at this level, and carries big speed figs.
Diablolical-Talent Search exacta paid $15.40

9-- Chelokee. Price will be awful, but Matz deserves to win the first Barbaro stakes.
Chelokee paid $2.60. Let's hope this is a real race next year.

10-- Everybody says Einstein but I say the odds make him a bad bet. It's going to be crowded at the final turn, you know. Cosmonaut, Outperformance and Remarkable News would all be good at 5-1.
Einstein tossed his rider avoiding a fallen horse. The three above paid $388 as a trifecta. Remarkable News paid $13.80 to win.

11-- Sure, Hesanoldsalt is the no brainer, but not at the likely 3/5. Flashy Bull could surprise at 4-1 or so. He has a nice G2 race and a monster AQU win.
Flashy Bull paid $8.40. Exacta $20.40 with Hesanoldsalt.

12-- THE PREAKNESS. Street Sense will be overbet. He is the hype horse and the hype horse NEVER offers fair value. It took a perfect trip for him to beat Hard Spun in the Derby, and what if he doesn't get the trip this time? Street Sense and Hard Spun are equals, I say. That's why I'll take Hard Spun at 2-1 or whatever. A Curlin win would be no great surprise, but you can't bet 'em all. The longshot Xchanger hasn't the class of those top 3 horses, but is in great form and has a run over the track -- which no other horse does. But Curlin went by him laughing in the Rebel.
I still can't believe this trifecta box of the obvious 3 paid $50. I wish I had thought to bet it, but assumed it would pay $9. A double bet on Curlin and Hard Spun paid $8.80 for $4.00

13 -- Creve Coer, if paying 4-1.
No bet at 2-1.