NYRA Photo

Belmont Park partners with Keeneland for Saturday's Cross Country Pick 5

by Brian Bohl

Free Equibase PPs available

Saturday's Cross Country Pick 5 will feature action from Belmont Park and Keeneland Race Course in a wager hosted by the New York Racing Association, Inc. 

Live coverage will be available with America's Day at the Races on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. 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.

Keeneland will start the action in Race 7 at 4:24 p.m. Eastern with a maiden contest for juvenile fillies going seven furlongs. Willful Woman, a $400,000 purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York Select Sale, has been training at Keeneland ahead of her anticipated debut for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Trainer Tom Amoss will send out a pair with Miss Dial and Wicked Bisou as part of a 12-horse field.

Belmont gets in on the action with the 80,000 Floral Park in Race 9 at 4:47 p.m. Graded stakes-winner Mitchell Road will get her first career test at Belmont when she competes as part of a full 13-horse field for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up contesting six furlongs on the Widener turf course. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Mitchell Road enters off a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies on September 12. Rose Flower, a German bred who has gone 1-0-2 in four starts since arriving from Europe last year for trainer Christophe Clement, will look for class relief after running sixth in the Grade 3 Intercontinental on June 6 over a yielding Belmont turf.

Action will again alternate to Keeneland for the third leg in Race 8 at 4:57 p.m. when a full field of 12 3-year-olds and up will run at nine furlongs on the turf in an allowance tilt. Trainer Mike Maker will send out a pair in Temple and Apreciado. Conditioner Jack Sisterson will also saddle multiple graded-stakes placed Ritzy A.P., who will break from the inside post. 

Belmont's second and final leg will be the card's 10th-race finale, where 10 New York-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up will compete over seven furlongs on Big Sandy at 5:20 p.m. Jc's Shooting Star, a stakes-winner who also bested allowance company on August 16 at Saratoga, drew the far outside post for trainer David Donk. Playtone, second in last year's Key Cents at Aqueduct Racetrack, will go for trainer George Weaver.

The Grade 2, $200,000 Raven Run in Keeneland's Race 9 at 5:30 p.m. will close the curtain on the Cross Country Pick 5, with 10 sophomore fillies vying for supremacy going seven furlongs on the main track in Race 9. Graded stakes-winners Venetian Harbor and Four Graces will look for additional blacktype in a race that could set up a spot in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on November 7 at the same Lexington track. Nine of the field's entrants are either graded-placed or stakes winners.

Trained by Richard Baltas, Venetian Harbor won the Grade 2 Las Virgenes in February at Santa Anita Park and has run second in three straight graded stakes, falling just short to divisional leaders Swiss Skydiver, Speech and Gamine.

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, October 17:

Leg 1 - Keeneland, Race 7: (4:24 p.m.)
Leg 2 - Belmont, Race 9: Floral Park (4:47 p.m.)
Leg 3 - Keeneland, Race 8: (4:57 p.m.)
Leg 4 - Belmont, Race 10: (5:20 p.m.)
Leg 5 - Keeneland, Race 9: G2 Raven Run (5:30 p.m.)