Horse Bet of the Day – Thorondor Will Try to Deny Brushburn in the 7th at Hollywood Park on Thursday

Clear skies call are called for this Thursday in Inglewood, California making the 7th at Hollywood Park, a 1 ½ mile jaunt across the turf, one interesting race to bet in the horse racing sportsbook.

Already, most horseplayers are lining up to throw major dollars behind Brushburn who no doubt will go off as one of the lowest priced favorites on Thursday’s Hollywood Park card. I don’t believe he’s the key horse in the race, however.

Horse Bet of the Day: Hollywood Park – Race 7

Race-day: 5/20/2010

Race-time: 7:07 pm EST

TV: TVG (Television Games Network)

Optional Claiming $40,000 n$y

For Three Year Olds Which Have Never Won $10,000 Other Than Maiden, Claiming or Starter, or Which Have Never Won Two Races or Claiming Price $40,000

1 ½ miles on turf

Thorondor – - 3/1 fair online horse betting odds

There’s a ton of upside to the son of Ferrari since he’s only run 6 times in his career. Out of those 6 races, Thorondor has 2 victories, a 2nd and a 3rd. Based on speed ratings, he probably doesn’t have a chance against Brushburn but there’s more to handicapping a horse race than looking at speed ratings. This guy should get an easy lead over Brushburn as that one will want to save his steam for the stretch drive in this marathon race. So Thorondor, who’s bred to run as far as his feet and lungs will take him, can coast through a :49 or even possibly a :50 half which is much slower than the usual :47 half he’s used to running. Sounds like a recipe for success to me.

Brushburn – - 5/2 fair online horse betting odds

Simply put, Brushburn is the most obvious winner of race 7 at Hollywood Park on Thursday. He hasn’t finished worse than 3rd in 4 straight races, is coming off of a nice victory going 1 ¼ miles on the turf, and loves Hollywood Park. Then again, that victory occurred on May 9th, only 11 days ago, and this guy ran the last part of that race much, much slower than the first part. Brushburn won’t outrun Thorondor to the half-mile in this race but has to stay close to Thorondor to have any chance at a victory. If he stays too close to Thorondor early, he might not have enough for the stretch run but if he challenges Thorondor, he’ll be cooked after 6 furlongs. That makes things tough for Brushburn to repeat his last performance in this race.

Favorite Meeting – - 4/1 fair online horse betting odds

Here we go again with a Turf Paradise shipper that figures to run very well at Hollywood Park. Favorite Meeting picks up Preakness Stakes’ winning jockey Martin Garcia for this and ran exceptionally well at the 1 7/8th mile distance in his last. Garcia no doubt will put this fella into the race early meaning that this guy could be the one to run down Thorondor and Brushburn. Don’t be fooled by trainer William Bainum’s 8% win rate in 2010. The man is a better trainer than that and obviously is looking for a victory with this 6-year old gelding on Thursday.

Horse Wagering Strategy

Burshburn could very well bounce off of that terrific score from 11 days ago. Because of that, Thorondor looks like the best horse bet in this race.

I will bet Thorondor to win and place. I will also key Thorondor in the first 2 slots in the trifecta over a box made up of Favorite Meeting, Brushburn, the Julio Canani trained Dynamic Range and the Humberto Ascanio trained El Indy.

I will bet an exacta with Thorondor over Brushburn and Favorite Meeting. I will reverse the exacta for less.

Good luck!

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