With Yonkers Raceway offering a hefty Presidents Night (Monday, Feb. 17) Pick-5 wager, featuring a double carryover of $16,144.27 and a $35,000 guaranteed pool, the Hilltop oval has enlisted the assistance of Peter Venaglia to dissect the sequence.
Venaglia, in addition to his many hats as co-host of Yonkers’ Saturday broadcast, first vice president of the Standardbred Owners Association of New York, and horse owner, has been known to handicap with aplomb.
His “Hilltop Helper” is a Saturday selection sheet, offered both in-house and online. The popular and effective “Helper” includes analysis along multi-horse and multi-race plays.
Thus, Yonkers has entrusted Venaglia to put together a ticket for the Monday Pick-5 (50-cent base wager, races 5 through 9), including his thoughts behind the choices.
Race 5: 1 - Gypsy Leather and 2 - Pop Icon. Former has speed from pole, latter figures to get a trip second off class dip.
Race 6: 3 -Twin B Impressive, 4 - Barimah A and 5 - Fox Valley Inferno. ‘Impressive’ finally gets a post he can work with, Barimah A just missed cutting mile this level two starts ago, and ‘Inferno’ has been chasing at least as good out of town.
Race 7: 2 - Razors Edge and 4 - Sugar Shock. ‘Razor’ has won two of last four elsewhere and gets 10-hole mulligan in last, while ‘Sugar’ actually beat theoretically better last month.
Race 8: 1 - Spectrum and 5 - Magritte. Spectrum took seven-hole money at this level when last here but could not reach, and Magritte did outrace his odds in last few, though figures to chase.
Race 9: 2 Mister Daytona N, 4 - Capozzo and 5 - Knocking Around. ‘Daytona’ beat up lesser and is full of back class, Capozzo — beaten favorite in last — has perhaps never been in this cheap, while Knocking Around nearly blew up the board in his latest effort.
That’s 72 combinations for a $36 investment.
Program pages for the Monday Pick-5 are available here.
(Yonkers Raceway)