in Triple Crown Free Picks

It’s not often I pick a filly or mare when she is up against the boys. While it is quite common for the girls to take on the boys in European racing, it just does not happen here in the U.S. very often.

When Todd Pletcher entered Rags to Riches in the Belmont Stakes, I was happy on two accounts. I thought it would make the race much more interesting, and I knew she had the type of pedigree that would relish going 1 ½ miles.

Her sire was A.P. Indy, who won the Belmont in 1993. Her half brother is Jazil, who won the 2006 running of the Belmont. Going further back in her pedigree, I could find plenty of stamina that would make her a player against the boys.

It turned out pretty good for us, as we cashed a win ticket good for $10.80 as she battled past Curlin in an exciting stretch duel.

Now it’s back to handicapping $25,000 claiming races and maiden races for the next few weeks. Can we use the power of pedigree to help us score a few more winners?

With the wealth of information available today, both in improved past performances and this thing called the Internet, which seems like it is going to be around a while, there is more information out there than we know what to do with.

Speed figures, pace figures, trainer statistics, it’s all out there. Buying a $2 program walking into the track will give you all of that information and more.

However, we can pick up an edge in some races by looking at pedigree and that information is not readily available for many horseplayers that do not invest a little extra time doing some homework.

It’s actually easy to get some valuable information regarding pedigree. This is very important when trying to come up with winners in maiden and turf races.

I use The Daily Racing Form when I do my handicapping, but there is also valuable information included in the BRIS past performances regarding pedigree that should not be overlooked.

Let’s look at the second race from Belmont Park last Saturday. It was a maiden race on the turf, a perfect race to use pedigree as part of the handicapping equation.

Looking at the BRIS past performances, we can see Prom Party, trained by Todd Pletcher is making her third start on grass. We can see the dam is unplaced, but she has dropped six other foals to race, and three of them won on grass. It gives us a good idea this filly should also like grass, and she did perform well over the grass in two tries, finishing third in both of those outings. The past performances also tell us she is a half sister to five winners in total and one is a stakes winner.

That’s pretty good information to know, but there is more.

Let’s look at the Daily Racing Form Sibling Summary. The dam, Prom Knight never tried the grass and was retired after just one start. Of the three turf winners she has produced, one of them turned out to be pretty good. Volponi won the Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt and over $3 million in his career. He had a career turf record of 10-2-2-3 with earnings over the grass of $312,382. Not too shabby.

Another half sister to Prom Party is Fickle Friends, who won $254,130 in her career and most of it came on grass where she was 6 for 14 in her career.

While Prom Party looked like a logical contender in the race anyway, knowing that she had the genes to be a good runner on turf made it much easier to swallow the fact we had to bet her at 9/5.

She paid off, drawing clear to win impressively by 2 ½ lengths and returned $5.60.

While cashing a winner at $5.60 will not exactly get the pulse racing at dangerous levels, using pedigree in maiden and turf races can pay much larger dividends.

By taking a few extra minutes and looking up pedigrees, you can find some real hidden gems. For instance, finding a horse that has performed poorly in dirt sprints that is trying the grass for the first time. Did the dam win on grass? Has she produced turf winners or stakes winners? Or, look for a first time starter that is sent out by a low profile barn that has a “win early” pedigree.

They are out there, and at generous prices. You just have to do a little digging to find them. Uncovering them is the fun part, not to mention profitable.

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