Saratoga Weekend Best Bets – Woodward Weekend

Throughout the 144th running of the Saratoga Race Course meet, we've done our best to provide you with the weekend's most likely win bets.  In this, the final weekend of said meet, we've scoured the past performances to find you a few more and finish strong.

We're coming strong to the betting window right from the start with a best bet in Friday's first. Though the 1 and 1A entries won't both be running Friday, either has the class to take this five and a half furlong, 80K Maiden.  The 4, Wild One, could be there, but whomever's carrying Ramon Dominguez when the weekend's racing opens - especially if it's My Happy Face, who finished second behind Teen Pauline, a 7-5 favorite in Sunday's Grade One Spinaway - expect them to be the one on top.

Friday's feature, the 100K Riskaverse Stakes presents us with our next best bet.  The card's eighth race, this mile race on the inner turf is headlined and should be won by Chad Brown's Dayatthespa. Brown has been a force on the turf this meet, with over twenty winners on the grass, and he saddles a filly who's won three straight stakes races on Friday, so I'll point toward it to continue.  I don't love her front-running style on an inner turf that favors closers, and I like the chances of second and third choices Assateague and Alaura Michele, but Dayatthespa's past performances are just too much to ignore.

A highly competitive Saturday card has us staying away, so we'll round out the weekend and the meet with a look at Sunday's tenth; and in that ever-American tradition of going out with a bang, we're giving you two for the price of one in this Grade One, seven furlong sprint.  First up is Teen Pauline, who enters the race off of a Maiden romp in which she not only blew away the field, but set a track record without feeling the sting of Julien Leparoux's whip.  Like Teen Pauline, Dreaming of Julia is a Stonestreet Stable filly whose Maiden race puts her above a field that is packed with class.  A ten length winner in that her only race, this Pletcher-Velazquez combination will fight every step of the way with Teen Pauline in a battle that will be something to behold. It's likely that only one will run on Sunday, but whomever does is unquestionably the one to bet.  Wins, exactas, trifectas, superfectas, whatever - do whatever you want, just make sure that they're involved.

It has been our absolute pleasure to spend these past weeks with you exploring the many betting possibilities of Saratoga's weekend cards, we hope it was as good for you as it was for us.  Follow me on Twitter by checking out the link below for more advice throughout the end of the meet and looking forward toward racing's biggest events, and until next year, good luck!

**The above advice is not provided by a professional handicapper - just a dude who knows some stuff doing his best.  If all goes wrong: Please be gentle.**