Thanksgiving weekend offers competitive stakes races across country

Thanksgiving weekend means great horse racing action from coast to coast. Among the main stakes offerings are four grade 1 events, the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs, the Cigar Mile at Aqueduct and at Del Mar the Hollywood Derby and Matriarch.

Since I’ll be covering the Del Mar races in my daily handicapping column, I will focus on the Clark and the Cigar Mile.

Today’s Clark is headed by Effinex (5-2) who was second to American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. I look for reasons to not bet on horses exiting a Breeders’ Cup event. Much of it has to do with being pointed to peak on that day and a lot of times a horse regresses in its next start.

If Effinex repeats his last race though, he is the horse to beat.

I like Hoppertunity (7-2) who won the Clark last year as a 3-year-old. Trainer Bob Baffert has had a frustrating season with him.

Hoppertunity has run in four grade 1 stakes since the Clark win. He finished second in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita and the Awesome Again, was third in the Stephen Foster and was fourth in the Pacific Classic.

If you like Hoppertunity, you might as well like Race Day (7-2) who beat him last time out in the Fayette at Keeneland.

The Cigar Mile, on paper, looks like a two horse race between Private Zone (6-5) and Tonalist (2-1).

Private Zone ran his eyeballs out in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint before losing late to Runhappy. Private Zone won the Cigar Mile last year and was second the year before that. Oddly enough, a mile is not his best distance.

Tonalist, for whatever reason, can’t seem to run a lick outside of Belmont Park. He was a well beaten fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last out.

A price play for me is Red Vine (8-1) who ran a good third to Liam’s Map in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

DERBY FUTURE WAGER – The Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 1 is this week. Parimutuel betting will be offered on 23 horses plus a field of all other horses (7-5). Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Nyquist (10-1) and the runner up Swipe (15-1) are the top two individual horses. In Las Vegas, we have a big edge in being able to shop for price utilizing the Derby Future books at Wynn Las Vegas, William Hill and the Westgate.

CHANTAL SUTHERLAND – Top female jockey Chantal Sutherland is coming out of retirement, again. She has been working horses to get back into riding shape. Her plan is to return on opening day of Santa Anita on Dec. 26. RUNHAPPY – Likely Eclipse Award sprint champion, Runhappy, is also set to return on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita in the grade 1 Malibu. He had won five races in a row for trainer Maria Borell before she was fired one day after winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Runhappy is now trained by Laura Wohlers, the person who fired Borell.

JOE TALAMO – If there were a perfect “Ken and Barbie” couple in horse racing, it would be Joe Talamo and Elizabeth Ellis. The handsome 25-year-old jockey and the beautiful daughter of trainer Ron Ellis were married last Friday in San Diego.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick