CHARLES TOWN PICKS AND HORSES TO WATCH: JUNE 25

Sleepy Eyes Todd
Sleepy Eyes Todd won the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic. Photo by Coady Photography.

Charles Town Races has an eight-race card on tap for this evening. Post time for the opener is 7:00 p.m., and we’ve got Charles Town picks.

Carryovers: Jackpot Pick 6, $66,956

Check out our other handicapping here!

RACE NUMBERCONTENDERSCOMMENTS
Race 68-1-2-4What a good field gathered for this 4 1/2-furlong allowance dash; the race features a pair of recent stakes winners and several other promising sorts. Plenty of these look likely to want to be engaged in the early running, so we’ll see if the cutback once again works to the advantage of #8 Door Buster (9-2). The Ollie Figgins trainee has won three straight at three different distances and two back rallied after a slow start to win the Its BInn Too Long Stakes at today’s distance. A better start would help a runner who should be heard from late… The speedy #1 Peppa Star (7-2) has won three of four at the trip and hopes to survive the early pace… Are we gonna leave Jerry Robb out of the mix? We are not. Robb, the trainer of #2 Green Eyes (5-1) has won six of eight at Charles Town this year — that’s not a misprint — and this runner galloped last out when facing CT maidens for the first time. A repeat of that makes her a contender here, and go-to rider Perez comes in for the mount… You can’t ignore #4 Our Diamond Girl (4-1), who won the Fancy Buckles last out and has won six of nine, including four straight, at the trip. She should be running from just off the early leaders…
Race 75-8-6-7Nice effort last out from #5 Elianagrace (9-2) to graduate. The Malibu Moon filly rallied from well back to win going away in a field that was quite strung out. She obviously liked the two-turn distance and tries to go back-to-back here for trainer Kevin Dove… In her debut Elianagrace had been a well-beaten third behind the well-backed #8 Gitane (2-1), the deserving fave in here. The place and show horses from Gitane’s first-out score both graduated in their follow-ups, and this Jeff Runco certainly has every right to win here. We’ll keep her in the mix but try to beat her on top on the premise that she’s trying something new here — two turns, after winning going one — and we’re not inclined to accept likely short odds on a horse trying to do something for the very first time… #6 Eternal Heart (5-2) has been second or third four times against similar, so she certainly fits. But can she win? #7 Cedars Bulls Eye (8-1) makes her third start off a two-month break and had some traffic trouble last time out. Look for an improved effort today…

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