The featured seventh race to begin the race week in Hallandale is a great betting race–provided you can separate the contenders.
We narrowed the 11-horse field to four, in post order:
Sharp and well spotted Not Phar Now (4-1), super-fit Lord of War (5-1) switching to Irad, sharp and first-off-the-claim Freedom Matters (7-2) for Martin Drexler, and forward-looking Stat (4-1).
The choice is Stat by virtue of his drop into this condition and entered as an NX1, taking advantage of the ‘restricted’ qualifier in the conditions.
Further, he has great spacing into this, versatility in that he can leave for position or rally from off the pace, is likely to fall between the parimutuel cracks.
Of greatest import, he has come into top form as a gelded 4-year-old and is forward on the Thoro Graph scale in our view. Given his recent works, he has maintained the sharpness displayed on JAN 29, Race 6.
Taking Stat to win at 4-1 or greater and key-boxing exotics first and second wit the three rivals named above.
