Betting Picks

EP Taylor Stakes 2018 Picks

The E.P Taylor will be run immediately after the (G1) Pattison Canadian International, where trainer Chad Brown has a pair of runners, and Brown holds a strong hand in this one as well with three entries, including the top-two choices in the morning line odds. 

Expected to lead them to the Woodbine gate is Brown’s Santa Monica, tabbed as the ML favorite at odds of 5-2. A UK-bred mare who has made three starts this year on this side of the Atlantic, she’s been in the money in all three of those races.

Two starts back she scored a win on the Woodbine turf in taking the (G2) Dance Smartly Stakes, coming from the very back of the nine-horse field with a strong rally down the long Woodbine stretch to get up to win by a half length.

She was second last out in the (G2) Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga behind a mare that enjoyed a very slow gate-to-wire trip, but you can expect she’ll get a lot more pace to run at here and is a formidable favorite.

Betting Tips

• 1Starship Jubilee Has Wins On The Track
• 2Lightly-Raced Filly In With A Shot
• 3Betting Woodbine Turf Racing Online

Starship Jubilee Has Wins On The Track

Perhaps the best local hope in the race lies with Starship Jubilee (8-1 ML odds) who comes in riding a two-race winning streak at Woodbine. That includes last time out when she won the (G2) Canadian Stakes, where she ran down a very good mare in New Money Honey, the winner of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filles as well as the (G1) Belmont Oaks Invitational last year.

Starship Jubilee gets the services of Woodbine’s top rider in Luis Contreras, who always seems to find a way to get to the front in all of the track’s biggest races. 

The second of the top entries for trainer Chad Brown is Elysea’s World (7-2 ML odds) winner of three-of-five so far this season at the Grade 3 level, including her last two in a row, both at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

While she’s taking a step up in competition here, she’s a consistant runner who stands a good chance of hitting the board on Saturday.

Lightly-Raced Filly In With A Shot

Perhaps the most intriguing of the Chad Brown trio is Pollara (6-1 in the ML), a lightly raced three-year-old filly with only three starts so far in her career, with two wins and one second-place finish.

The most recent of those wins came at the Group 3 level in France, where she won running at just under 1 1/2 miles, so the cut back in distance here could be to her liking.

She’s been off since that race and June and will be facing older horses for the first time, so while she’s hard to recommend for the win, she has shown enough talent to be competitive in this group.

E.P. Taylor Stakes Picks

1) #7 – Starship Jubilee (8-1)

2) #2 – Santa Monica (5-2)

3) #3 – Pollara (6-1)

4) #8 – Elysea’s World (7-2)  

Betting Woodbine Turf Racing Online

For horse racing fans, there’s nothing like racing on Woodbine’s world-class turf course, where the long stretch drive almost always makes for exciting and close finishes. 

US-based horseplayers can bet the full Woodbine card with an online racebook account at Bovada or one of these other recommended racebooks.