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Canterbury is the place for the Minnesota-breds on Sunday and while this may not be a track normally played, it is worth a look with the 50-cent pick-4 on races five to eight.

Race six looks like the best place to find some value with nine two-year-old fillies running six furlongs in the Northern Lights Debutante.  Hidden Gold and Night Deposit rate the best based on their last out speed figure, but if you take that out each of the runners have very similar numbers.

Prairie Meadows has a slew of stakes races on Saturday from Quarter Horses to Thoroughbreds.  Let’s focus on the early pick-4, which starts in race 4 with the Iowa Breeders’ Derby.

Hold the Charge could be a viable longshot in the first leg.  Terry Thompson should have him sitting just off Ruff Stuff and could get first run turning for home.  The next leg is wide open and the third leg may produce the single.  Red Hot N Gold has won half of her 22 starts at Prairie and is the one to beat.  In the final leg Crimson King Cat and Will E Scat appear like the ones to beat, but give a long look to Wild L.  Wild L comes off year layoff, but has some great works.  It should be a good pick-4 to play.

The two-year-olds are the focus at Calder on Saturday with 13 races, all for the juveniles.  Within the program are six stakes races on turf and dirt, sprinting and routing.  The stakes action gets underway with race seven, the Catcharisingstar Stakes.

The Catcharisingstar Stakes is carded for the turf going five furlongs.  This is another two-year-old turf race where none of the starters have turf experience so the pedigrees have to be analyzed.  The filly best bred for the turf is the Wesley Ward trained Girl Bar who is by Atticus out of an In Excess mare.  Ward does very well with two-year-old turf runners and Girl Bar could be a standout.

The Seacliff Stakes is next and Hear Ye Hear Ye comes off a smashing maiden victory in which he drew off to win by over seven lengths.  Hear Ye Hear Ye and the other seven juveniles make their first start around two turns.  Of the others Christopher’simage seems to have the running style for two turns, but comes back rather quickly after running on the 22^nd of August.

One of the features for the day, the Florida Stallion Susan’s Girl Stakes, is next on the program and drew a very even field of seven.  Any of the horses would make sense and it could be a spread race.  Sweetlalabye could start favored as she beat several of these in her last.

The fillies get to go two turns next in the Lindsay’s Frolic.  This race, again, is a wide-open affair and any of the 10 have a chance to win.  The speed figures would suggest it is a two-horse race between Seattle Zip and The Isabella Angel.  They are also two of only three horses in the race who have won or placed in a maiden special weight race.  The others have been racing against maiden claimers.

Just like the filly counterpart, the juvenile colt turf stakes is a race where none of the nine entrants have raced on turf.  The horse best bred for turf in this race?  The filly Girl Bar, who is cross entered in the first stakes race of the day.  Of the others, Gesu and Tutor appear to be best, but if Girl Bar does not run here then it becomes a good betting race.

The final two-year-old stakes race of the day is the other co-feature, the Florida Stallion Affirmed.  This race drew the shortest field of the day, five, but may produce the best stretch run.  Jackson Bend, Mr. Green, and Bim Bam all exit the first leg of the Florida Stallion series where Jackson Bend got up by three-quarters of a length over Mr. Green.  Mr. Green could get an easy lead here and Jackson Bend will once again have to come get him.

The Calder Juvenile Showcase on Saturday is a great wagering card.  There are pick-3’s and also an All-Stakes Pick-4.  The Pick-4’s on the weekend generally start with race 7, but check to make sure when the wagering menu comes out.

Once again we turn to Arlington Park for their late pick-4 on Wednesday and the sequence looks good for a big score.  The single may come in the last race, but even that is a hard single to take.  The 8-5 morning line favorite is dropping from maiden special weight to maiden claiming $10k, but has been 39-1 and 84-1 in his two starts.   Race seven looks to produce a price with a wide open field of 12 going five furlongs on the turf.  In a previous post Da Mama was given as a winner and three horses, She’s Salty Too, Sheltered, and Jenna Lu Hu all faced Da Mama in their last.  Those three horses are all double digit odds today.  The trainer/jockey connection of Da Mama has a horse here too.  Trainer Tom Amoss and jockey Eddie Razo Jr. team up with Serena Ballerina.  Ballerina makes her first start since February with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, but comes in with some sizzling works and is bred for the turf.  It’s a good spread race and a good pick-4 to play.

The 75^th running of the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin takes place on Saturday at Monmouth Park.  Five years ago a horse named Ghostzapper ran off with this race, and while there are no Ghostzapper’s in this years race one horse comes in with a Ghostzapper-like speed figure.  Coal Play comes off a little layoff after drawing off in the Grade 3 Salvatore Mile.  He is quick and has won three of five at Monmouth.  There is a ton of speed in the race, which may help the Larry Jones trained Solar Flare.  The Iselin goes off as race nine and is the third leg of the late pick-4.