Longshot of the Day: Race 7 at Turfway Park

Track: Turfway Park

Race 7: $62K optional claimer going 6 furlongs on synthetic for 2YO

Post Time: 8:55 PM ET

Horse: #6 War Humor (10/1 morning line). Use as a win bet at 6/1 or higher.

First off, make sure to tune into the NYRA Bets YouTube Livestream of Turfway Park on Wednesday night from 7-10 PM ET as I will be joined by a host of special guests for live betting and handicapping at everyone’s favorite weeknight track this time of year.

For my pick today, I am headed to two-year-old optional claimer, where I am willing to try and beat the Wesley Ward-trained favorite #3 Floodlites (8/5) trying synthetic for the first time after running at Del Mar over the Breeders’ Cup weekend. Instead, I will look to another horse trying the all-weather surface for the first time in War Humor. The Virginia-bred broke his maiden against stakes company at Colonial Downs winning the Jamestown Stakes back in August going 5 ½ furlongs over the turf. If you toss his lone dirt effort and his debut over a yielding turf course, he has never missed the board and despite only winning once, he proved he can beat winners in that effort. He is stretching out to six furlongs, but his stalking/tracking running style makes me think he can handle stretching out another half furlong. He has a modest pedigree being sired by Mosler who stands in Maryland for $2,500, but a closer look at the numbers shows that in limited opportunities, Mosler has produced some nice synthetic sprinters with 16% winning and 37% hitting the board including five-time winner Next Episode who broke his maiden over an all-weather surface going today’s distance. I would normally like to see a work or two over the track at Turfway, but I think you will get a good price on this one because of the smaller connections and the unknown of the surface. So long as he handles the track, he has a good running style and has shown consistency throughout his early career. If you’re looking for an even bigger price (and who isn’t at Turfway Park) then look right next door to #7 Turf Cat (20/1) who broke his maiden over an all-weather surface at Presque Isle. He would need to take a significant step forward in terms of his Beyer Speed Figures, but he attracts jockey Luan Machado for the mount, and I am willing to make some excuses for his first two efforts. In debut he did not have the best trip and kept on finishing fourth. Subsequently, that race has produced five horses that have won. His second start was at Kentucky Downs, which is traditionally a track where I draw a line through poor efforts as some horses fail to take well to the ground. He won next time out and is coming in fresh having not run in nine weeks. He will be coming from more of a mid-pack trip and could be worth a flier underneath in your deeper exotics.