Best Horse Racing Bets for Thursday, April 29, 2021

From Gulfstream Park in Florida, across the country to Golden Gate Fields in California, and then deep into the heart of Texas to Lone Star Park, I’ve found some excellent races to assess for my Thursday picks.

Read on for today’s horse racing betting tips.

Good luck!

It looks like the 1/1 morning line favorite in race three is the smart choice for the winner. Queen Helene, with Kyle Frey in the irons.

This is a six-furlong run on the all-weather track for fillies and mares aged three years and up. Queen Helene has a record that makes her claim to the win virtually self-evident. Seven money finishes in eleven career starts, four of those wins. In this short field, that earns her the morning line’s 1/1 odds.

A 25-year veteran of thoroughbred racing on the West Coast, trainer Jamey R. Thomas has had Frey aboard for Queen Helene’s last four runs. She’s been in the money for all four.

Race four is a one-mile run on turf for fillies and mares, and I like the second-favored entry (at 2/1) Breaking the Code. Veteran jockey Irving Orozco is in the irons for this run.

The five-year-old Breaking the Code has a record that compares favorably to that of the 9/5 favorites. Nine money finishes in 15 starts, with three wins.

No stranger to Golden Gate Fields, trainer Greg C. James has been producing West Coast winners for 30 years. James switched to jockey Orozco for Break the Code’s latest two runs and was rewarded with two wins.

Race seven is another one-mile turf run for fillies and mares. While the odds are tight between the favorite and the second-favored horses, I’m calling this one for the 5/2 morning line favorite, Nina En Fuego.

Trainer Isidro Tamayo has tried several good jockeys during Nina En Fuego’s brief career, but he appears to have settled on Frey, which is no surprise. Frey rode Nina En Fuego for her maiden win (on turf) and her last two wins on the all-weather track. For the record, Nina En Fuego moneyed four of her seven career starts, winning three.

My choice for race three at Gulfstream is the third-favored (at 4/1) Infatuating, ridden for this seven-furlong main track race for fillies by top jockey Edwin Gonzalez.

Infatuating’s record is impressive. Six money finishes in six career starts, three of those wins. It also shows distinct improvement, with her first three maiden runs all third-place finishes. Her next three were all wins.

Infatuating’s trainer, David Fawkes, has been a fixture at Florida tracks since even before he started winning graded stakes races back in 1998.

In race seven, a one-mile main track run for four-year-olds and up, I‘m taking the morning line’s advice and buying a win ticket for the 8/5 favorite, Create Again, ridden by veteran jockey Edgard Zayas.

Create Again, a six-year-old gelding, moneyed 15 of his 28 career starts, winning six.

In the training biz for just a handful of years, Victor Barboza, Jr. has already made his mark at Gulfstream with two graded stakes wins (so far). These include The Inside Information Stakes (Grade II) with Distinta and the Sugar Swirl Stakes (Grade III) with Rich Mommy—both runs in 2017 and both at Gulfstream Park.

Race eight is a turf run of about seven-and-a-half furlongs, and it’s for three-year-olds and up that have never won two races. Plainly speaking, this is a competition between horses that found graduating out of the maiden class a serious challenge.

That said, I like the third-favored (at 4/1) Coltonstheadmiral, with Edgard Zayas in the irons. Coltonstheadmiral, a three-year-old gelding, moneyed two of his five career starts, winning one. That gives him the best record in this eight-horse field.

A relative newcomer to Gulfstream, trainer Amador Merei Sanchez tapped Zayas to jockey Coltonstheadmiral for all five races.

I have to agree with the morning line about race one. It’s 2/1 favorite Dixie Mo’s race to lose. Jockeyed by veteran Stewart Elliott for this one-mile turf run for fillies and mares, Dixie Mo stands out in this eight-horse field with eight money finishes in 14 starts, four of those wins.

Incidentally, there’s a 20/1 longshot in race one with a distinct chance of finishing in the money. Consider a show ticket for Willtheresaway, ridden by Lindey Wade. Willtheresaway finished in the money 13 of her 23 career starts, winning four.

For race seven, a six-and-a-half furlong main track run for Texas-bred three-year-olds and up, I like the third-favored (at 7/2) Gold Pilot, with Reylu Gutierrez in the irons.

This six-horse field is filled with thoroughbreds used to competing at the stakes race level, so every one of the six has proven mettle and will is not a question.

I like Gold Pilot because the four-year-old has a solid record. Six money finishes in nine career starts, two of those wins. He broke his maiden at Sam Houston in January 2020, then the following month won the ungraded Jim’s Orbit Stakes. His most recent money finish was a second-place in the Spirit of Texas Stakes at Sam Houston Race Park in March.

A highly-ranked trainer in terms of both wins and earnings for at least the past decade, W. Bret Calhoun has raced Gold Pilot under various jockeys. This will be Gutierrez’s first race aboard Gold Pilot.

If Ry Eikleberry rides the second half of the coupled entry in race eight, Baozun, bet him to win. Running as the morning line’s second-favored at 3/1 for this race, Baozun moneyed ten of his 15 career starts, winning six of them.

If that doesn’t happen, go with a win ticket on the third-favored (at 4/1) Dust Em. For this race, Richard Eramia will be in the irons. Dust Em has a brief but healthy record of three money finishes in six starts. Two of them were wins.