Go West, young man
A double today for trainer Ted H. West? The way I've been going lately, I don't want to put a jinx on the high-percentage trainer, but he does have a couple of horses that look really good.
In the first, I like Good Gold with Norberto Arroyo Jr. aboard. West, a master at the claiming game, took this guy for $25,000 two races back at Fairplex Park and, after a solid second in a $40,000 optional claimer at the Pomona oval, West drops him back in for $25,000 today. You might not get much of a price, but it will be better than you can get in a B of A money market. Traffic Update and Final Finale are also contenders who I'll use in exactas and doubles.
West also has Delivering Speed going in the fifth, a horse who has won his only start over the Santa Anita oval. Michael Baze is aboard.
There are some other interesting plays today:
4 -- In Excelsis can score at a very, very nice price for trainer Ron McAnally and jockey Tyler Baze.
7 -- New Export, with Corey Nakatani up for trainer Bobby Frankel, is my best bet of the day. I think he's ready for a huge effort coming out of a restricted stakes race at Del Mar.
8 -- Domingo Juan is a price player's dream in the nightcap. He'll be closing like a sonofagun. I think he's a solid across-the-board play.
DId go west young man hook up against a horse name i don't know John Henery
I can't be certain, but I don't believe Go West Young Man, who won the 1980 Hollywood Gold Cup with Eddie Delahoussaye in the saddle, ever raced against John Henry. Go West Young Man was 5 when he won the Gold Cup, and John Henry didn't really hit it big on the West Coast scene until the next year when he won his first of two Santa Anita Handicaps.
Actually they did in 1980 with John Henry prevailing.
John Henry 1, Balzac 2, Go West Young Man 3, in the Hollywood Invitational.