Fair Grounds Race Course Picks – Saturday, January 9, 2021

The three richest races at Fair Grounds Race Course I chose to review for Saturday include the sixth running of the $75,000 Nelson J. Menard Memorial Stakes race. With one of the shortest fields I’ve seen in months (five at the gate), this race looks to be a heartbreaker, regardless of the winner.

Read on for my Fair Grounds Race Course picks and tips for Saturday, January 9, 2021.

This is an allowance optional claiming race for Louisiana-bred four-year-olds and upward running a distance of six furlongs for a purse of $52,000.

I like the second-favored (7/2) entry in this match — Win Ya Win, ridden by Adam Beschizza. This four-year-old gelding finished int eh money five of his six career starts, winning two of them.

Speaking of sleepers, keep an eye on one of the four (yes, four) 6/1 entries in this seven-horse field: Silver Galaxy, with Mitchell Murrill in the irons. Like my choice to win this race, this four-year-old colt moneyed five of his six starts, winning two.

This is an allowance optional claiming race for four-year-olds and upward running a distance of 1-1/16 miles for a purse of $53,000.

I like one of the second-favored entries (there are two horses at 4/1) in this race — M G Warrior, with Shaun Bridgmohan aboard. This six-year-old has a better record than the morning line favorite: Nine money finishes in 15 career starts, five of them wins.

The longest odds in this seven-horse race are 8/1, and that’s for Vangilder, one of the two Steve Asmussen horses in this match. Vangilder — ridden by Adam Beschizza for this run — has a record not quite as good as the morning line favorite’s: Eight money finishes in 16 career starts, three of them wins. The 8/1 odds aren’t long enough to support a show ticket, but you may want to make a safety sleeper bet here.

This is the Nelson J. Menard Memorial Stakes, an ungraded stakes race for fillies and mares four years old and upward running a distance of about 5-1/2 furlongs on turf for a purse of $75,000.

My money is on the second-favored (3/1) entry in this race — Play On, with Shaun Bridgmohan in the irons. This five-year-old mare moneyed seven of her 12 career starts, winning five. Yes, the morning line favorite has a better money-finish percentage — and I have no doubt she’ll finish in the money in this race — but Play On has a distinct advantage here in terms of crossing the finish line first in fewer starts.

At 20/1, Snowball, ridden by James Graham, is a good value show wager in this field. This five-year-old mare finished in the money 13 times in 23 career starts, winning five.

Fair Grounds Race Course yielded up plenty of underdogs, and I found more of those, as well as some solid long-odds moneymakers, at the other tracks I reviewed for Saturday: