The Friday feature is a good one, something we have come to expect from allowance tilts on Tampa turf, The nuts and bolts are that it’s a secondary allowances/optional for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and a sixteenth.
This event is open but after some video work we narrowed our focus down to two: Newsworthy (4-1) shipping north from Payson Park for Bill Mott, and A Rose for Raven (6-1). Allowing for projected payoffs, we’re shading ‘Raven’ in this spot.
There is no knocking Newsworthy, who showed a modicum of early gas before dropping back to last then tipping out with a big head of steam and roared down the wide outside of the Kentucky Downs course to win in the final strides despite swapping leads as he neared the wire.
He’s worked seven times since that September run, including a bullet blowout over the deep Payson surface NOV 28. Check out the replay of that SEP 8 KD score.
A Rose for Raven is more our kind. Lighter raced, the gelded Distorted Humor 3-year-old benefitted from a perfect trip to win his Canterbury finale, In doing so, he improved his turf record to 2-for-4. Both lifetime wins came on grass) and in one start in a similar trip two-turner.
Trained by owner Kerri Raven, he’s come to hand on turf and the addition of Lasix, which he gets again here. In his most recent win he displayed an excellent turn of foot to blow the race wide open after entering the straight, and would not allow any late-running rivals to pass him galloping out.
The surmise is there’s more in that big tank of his. We’re taking A Rose for Raven to win at 4-1 or greater on the switch to hot riding turf ace, Jose Ferrer, and an exacta box with the sharp Mott ship-in.
