Longshot of the Day: Race 4 at Churchill Downs

Track: Churchill Downs

Race 4: $40K maiden claimer going 5 ½ furlongs on dirt for 2YO fillies

Post Time: 2:13 PM ET

Horse: #9 Light My Flame (10/1 morning line) use as a win bet at 7/1 or higher.

Two-year-old maiden claiming races can be a bit of a struggle as there are horses dropping in class that may have already proved to be disappointments based upon their sales price while other bargain buys might prove to fetch their connections a little profit. Light My Flame is the later as the daughter of Flameaway was purchased for a mere $10,000 at last year’s Keeneland September Sale and now drops in for a $40,000 tag in debut. Trainer Chris Melton has a small operation but has had success with a few of his runners in recent years and has brought this one along well. From a pedigree standpoint, she is out of a Malibu Moon mare who has produced two other foals, one of which won in debut and the other finished second. You love to see that type of dam side precocity, particularly since the first two foals did not have particularly noteworthy sires. There is not much in this race in terms of other runners who have strong performance except for perhaps #10 Cinnamon Sugar (3/1) who ran at this level last time out and finished a distant second while only going 4 ½ furlongs. I love that Light My Flame got in a five-furlong workout leading up to this race as it should have improved his conditioning, but he had a solid gate work and a three-furlong bullet back in May that showed good early speed. If jockey Abel Cedillo gets him away from the gate in good order, he should be traveling well up front and has a chance to upset the field as a solid price. Even if he ends up not being your top choice, he feels like an outstanding horse to use in vertical wagers as the lack of quality contenders makes this a wide-open race.