Belmont Park, Churchill Downs comprise Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5

by Brian Bohl

The New York Racing Association Inc. [NYRA] will host a Cross Country Pick 5 on Saturday featuring stakes action from both Belmont Park and Churchill Downs.

Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/cross-country-wagers.

Belmont will host the first two legs, starting with the $100,000 Seek Again for 4-year-olds and up going one mile on the Widener turf in Race 9 at 5:12 p.m. Eastern. Grade 1-winner Decorated Invader will headline the field, with the Christophe Clement trainee, who won the 2020 Grade 2 Pennine Ridge and the Grade 2 Hall of Fame, facing talented competition.

Among those contenders will be Get Smokin, who started his 4-year-old campaign with a three-quarter length score in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay going 1 1/16 miles on February 6. 

Trainer Chad Brown will send out a pair of contenders, with Delaware, who won the Danger’s Hour at Aqueduct last month to mark his first North American win in seven starts since arriving from Europe in 2019, and Flavius, who ran second to Count Again in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap in November at Del Mar.

Belmont’s 10th race finale at 5:44 p.m. will see a field of filly and mare maiden claimers 3-years-old and up compete at 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf. The hard-luck Emma and I, who has ran second by a neck in both of her last two starts, has been knocking on the door for trainer James Ryerson, with three runner-up finishes and two third-place efforts in seven career starts. Emma and I earned a field-best 60 Beyer Speed Figure last out going 1/16 miles on May 1 over the Belmont turf, marking her first start on grass after her three previous outings were on the main track.

Night racing at Churchill will comprise the final three legs, with a 1 1/16-mile main track maiden special weight slated for Race 7 at 9:05 p.m. Closet Shopper, a $600,000 purchase at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, has twice placed in five career starts, with the Gregory Foley trainee running third last out on April 9 going one mile at Keeneland. Foley will also send out Kizzy B, 0-5-2 in 10 career races, but has earned placings in three consecutive starts.

A one-mile allowance optional claiming tilt will be the wager’s penultimate contest in Race 8 at 9:39 p.m. Finnick the Fierce, who was on the early 2020 Triple Crown trail with a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and later a seventh-place finish in the Grade 2 Blue Grass in July. Finnick the Fierce ran seventh in a turf optional claimer last out on April 30 at Churchill but will be returning to the main track on Saturday.

The Cross Country Pick 5 finale will showcase the $110,000 Keertana for older fillies and mares going 1 1/2 miles on the turf set for Race 9 at 10:11 p.m. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott will send out Delta’s Kingdom, who has twice finished as the runner-up in graded stakes competition in the Grade 3 Bewitch last out in April at Keeneland and the Grade 3 La Prevoyante in January at Gulfstream Park sandwiched around a fourth-place effort in the Grade 3 Orchid in March in Florida. The field also includes Silverton Hill’s homebred Pass the Plate, who finished a neck behind Delta’s Kingdom in the Bewitch at Keeneland when stretching out to 1 ½ miles for the first time.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 - Saturday, May 22:

Leg A: Belmont– Race 9, Seek Again (5:12 p.m.)

Leg B: Belmont – Race 10 (5:44 p.m.)

Leg C: Churchill – Race 7 (9:05 p.m.)

Leg D: Churchill – Race 8 (9:39 p.m.)

Leg E: Churchill – Race 9, Keertana (10:11 p.m.)