Weekend Stakes Races – Santa Anita and Louisiana

Two big races are on tap this weekend. One at Santa Anita where the Grade I Las Virgenes is being run. The other is at the Fairgrounds in Louisiana where the Grade III Risen Star Stakes is being run.

Both races should provide opportunities for online betting fans to make some profit.

Let’s get to it!

Santa Anita – Race 6

Grade I Las Virgenes

$300,000

For Fillies Three Years Old

1 mile on Pro-Ride

Stardom Bound is going to be super chalky in this and she should be after finishing with 3 wins and 2 seconds in 5 races as two-year old. She’s going to be so chalky that I have to go with a different horse. That horse is Navigator out of the Ron Ellis barn. Navigator followed up a maiden victory at Hollywood Park with a win in a stakes race at Santa Anita. Any more improvement could put her into her winner’s circle. Stardom Bound won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies for a reason. She’s good. She shouldn’t finish worse than second in this. For third, I like Saucey Evening who just won a $125,000 stakes in her last. She should be rolling late with Stardom Bound at the end.

1. Navigator

2. Stardom Bound

3. Saucey Evening

Fairgrounds – Race 9

Grade III Risen Star Stakes

$200,000

For Three Year Olds

1 1/16th miles on dirt

Larry Jones is loaded with good three-year olds this year. Friesan Fire will be the chalk in this race, but I like Jones’s other runner, It Happened Again, slightly more. It Happened Again has two wins out of four lifetime starts including a fantastic victory in a restricted stakes in his last. He loses Gabriel Saez, Jones’s top rider, to Friesan Fire, but he’s a good enough horse to win this. Friesan Fire could turn into a serious contender for the roses on Kentucky Derby day. Fire has the ability and heart coming out of A.P. Indy and Jones puts Saez on him. There are a number of these could round out the top three but I like the looks of the Steve Asmussen trained Soul Warrior. Coming off of a maiden victory, Warrior will offer odds in this race.

1. It Happened Again

2. Friesan Fire

3. Soul Warrior

Good Luck!