Free Picks For Parx - 8/18/20

Race 7 - Maiden Special Weight (Purse -$34,000)

Seven 3-year-old fillies are slated to go one mile and 70 yards. This will be the first race for each competitor at this distance. #7 Ice Diamond has run decently in her two 2020 events, she finished fourth in her last outing after making a bid between horses before faltering in the stretch in a six-furlong event on July 15. Ice Diamond is the only one in a slow field that has any speed and will have jockey Anthony Nunez, who is having a career year with an 11% strike rate, onboard. While I believe that Ice Diamond, who was third in her debut this year, is slightly better than the rest of the field, the battle for second and third should be fierce. #5 Jumpintoaction, perhaps the biggest challenger to Ice Diamond, has run the best two races of his career in back-to-back events. Jumpintoaction is coming off a fourth-place showing after drifting out and tiring in a one-mile race. The daughter of Jump Start, who has two second-place showings including one this year, is coming off a strong four-furlong training session last week. #4 Run Florence Run has hit the “ticket” in two of her last three starts and finished less than a length behind Jumpintoaction in her last event but well ahead of Double Doink as well as Quiet Please both of whom are in today’s race. I believe that #1 Double Doink and #2 Quiet Please should put out better performances.

Picks: I like an exacta box od #7, #5. I also like a winning bet on the #7.

Race 9 - Maiden Special Weight (Purse -$40,000)

Eight 2-year-old male runners will go five furlongs. Just two of the runners, #5 Clickclickclick and #6 Call Me GQ have raced before. I am going with two first-timers to go one and two though I wouldn’t be surprised if the two horses that have a race under their belts nuzzle their way into either position. #4 Frank N Ducky has been tremendous during workouts in his two August outings, posting the second-best time during the training session at Parx going four furlongs in 48.08 seconds and then followed that up with a 34.86 second performance in three furlongs, which was the top time of the day. #8 Reigning Champion, like Frank N Ducky, is trained by Edward Coletti. Reigning Champion should be among the top flight of runners in the early going as he appears to have tremendous speed. I expect both Call Me GQ and Clickclickclick to improve on their initial performances in the same four-and-one-half furlong meet. Call ME GQ finished fourth in that race after weakening down the stretch while Clickclickclick wound up two spots behind him though he dropped back early and was never in contention.

Picks: I will go with an exacta box of #5, #6, #4, #8.

Race 11 - Allowance (Purse -$35,000)

Eight fillies and mares will go six and one-half furlongs. Three horses appear to stand out in this one. #8 Madam Meena has been almost spectacular in her freshman campaign, collecting four victories and six top-3 finishes overall in seven starts. Madam Meena, who has shown some very good early speed, is coming off a third-place finish after getting off to a slow start but was able to battle to almost nip Capital Q at the wire. Trainer Jaime Ness and jockey Angel Rodriguez have a 33% strike rate when working together this year. #2 Jaffle is arguably the fastest horse in the field and set the pace her last outing before fading after the halfway point of a six-furlong allowance meet -- in what was the 5-year-old mare’s first race since June 2018. Jaffle, who entered the last race with a win and two second-place finishes, had a solid workout on Aug. 12. #3 Promised Storm has a 70% WPS percentage in dirt races and enters the meet on a stretch of finishing in the top 3 seven consecutive times. However, the 5-year-old mare is coming off the longest break having not raced since February. #5 Capitol Q has three straight second-place finishes, all at this level, and is an option in exotic bets.

Picks: I will go with a winning bet on the #8. I will also go with a #8, #2, #3 exacta box, Additionally, I will go with a trifecta bet of #8, keyed with #2, #3, #5.