Coming off a sharp race in today’s sprint feature at Laurel, Laki (5-2), an eight-time winner at Laurel (1-for-9 anywhere else), is a deserving favorite in Saturday’s eighth race.
Ramon Dilodovico-trained and Horatio Karamanos-ridden, he’s earned a halfmillion dollars the hard way. But we’re looking to upset this team with gelded five year old Cordmaker (7-2).
In his last, Cordmaker, returning from a layup at a mile, not an easy task, raced on the pace between horses throughout and tired understandably. From this, he is sure to benefit.
And he, too, is a horse for course, a six-time Laurel winner, and has excelled when turning back in distance as he’s doing here, winning 2 of 6 with one second.
Picking up Feargal Lynch, he goes for Rodney Jenkins who is 11-for-33 most recently in LAY-2 scenarios and a worthy 31% with turnbacks.
The early line is not attainable but we’ll take anything north of 2-1 or 5-2 straight, and an exacta box with the favorite.