Horse Racing Trader’s Tips: Will Rogers Downs – Monday 11th May

Our trader previews the pick of tonight’s Stateside action

The Will Rogers Downs course hosts the 24th card of it’s Spring Meeting tonight with the first race of their 10-race card scheduled to go off at 19:15.

Despite many American racecourses abandoning handicap racesin favour of claimers, Will Rogers Downs have embraced them.

The evening’s feature race is a one-mile handicap at 23:15. Apalachee Bay looks to be an intriguing runner here.

The five-year-old entire had a very fruitful 2019 on theCanadian dirt-route stakes circuit, with the highlight coming in the form of avictory in the John Longden Handicap at Hastings Park.

Since his last outing, he has now switched to Greg Tracy, atrainer who does well with horses returning from layoffs. His record stands at40 wins from 127 starters coming back from a break of at least 120 days overthe last five years.

Tour de Force could be the one competitor in thefield who gives him the most to think about. He may well never live up to thepromise he showed for Mark Casse, but he should find life easier for newconnections after being claimed when he was last seen racing in New York inJanuary.

So far, the meeting has been dominated by jockeys FloydWether Jr. and Ty Kennedy. The pair have ridden 57 winners betweenthem and have both finished in the money on over half of their mounts.

Wethey Jr’s best chance of a winner comes in the 21:15, where he rides Kipper. Kennedy will be disappointed if he doesn’t end up in the Winner’s Enclosure after the 21:45. He partners the hat-trick seeking Dr. Bagley for the meeting’s leading trainer Robertino Diodoro.