Laurel Park: Spot plays and horses to watch, October 28

Rapid Dan (#2) cruised to victory in an allowance at Laurel Park. Photo by The Racing Biz.

Gary Quill is taking a brief hiatus from his GQ Approach full-card picks and analysis. In his stead, we present daily spot plays and horses to watch. Good luck!

• The eighth is a maiden special weight event for fillies and mares three and up going six furlongs on the main track. The morning line favorite — and another in the battalion of nicely bred runners out of this barn — is the Arnaud Delacour trainee #3 Bloody Point (5-2). The daughter of War Front, a homebred for Alpha Delta Stables, is the first foal to race out of the Grade 1 winner Mona Momma, by Speightstown. We might wish (from a wagering perspective, that is) that she had Lasix, but she’s been working forwardly in the mornings and is bred to be any kind. Interestingly enough, Delacour will leg up Horacio Karamanos in the irons; while Karamanos is a solid veteran, he’s not one Delacour typically uses. This one looks like a must-use in exotics, but if you want to go fishing for value, a horse we’re a little bit intrigued by is the Michelle Nevin trainee #5 Hopefully (10-1). Though she’s winless in three starts — and hasn’t shown much — all were on the West Coast. She may find the softer surfaces and easier company at Laurel more to her liking. A Siegel family homebred, she is a half-sis to a graded stakes-placed runner. Jevian Toledo will ride.

• In the tenth, a second allowance going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, the morning line favorite is #5 Monavista Crossing (2-1), and why not? The Ollie Figgins trainee has won four of five starts since moving over to the turf, last out holding off the cavalry to win a first allowance. But we can try to hunt up some value here if so inclined, and the most likely candidate to offer it is #10 Irish Defence (6-1). The New Jersey-bred First Defence filly made her first try on the turf, a winning one, easily taking an allowance at the Meadowlands. It’s a little hard to know what she beat there; those Big M fields aren’t all that deep, but it’s a good sign that all five to run back have finished in the money, with one winner. Plus, this one has a right to like the turf; her half-brother Irish Strait is a graded stakes winner on the lawn. Another half-bro, Irish War Cry, is a multiple graded winner on the main track. The Graham Motion trainee shows a couple of modest works in the meantime and will get Sheldon Russell in the irons.