Thursday was pretty darn sweet for us as we had a winner and two big-priced places from our four picks yesterday.

As always all of our selections come from outside the top three (or four if paying out four places) according to the odds on the Morning Line and every tip is from a Betfred Extra Place Race…

I am a sucker for a Friesan Fire colt. We start Friday’s picks up at Pimlico where in the first (17:25), I like the look of the five-year-old Prins Fire. He broke his maiden last time out with a win at the Maryland State Fair (Timonium) in a career best speed figure.

Only going six-furlongs here and his record shows that he prefers sprint distances rather than a mile plus. In his only breeze at Pimlico back in July showed a nice turn of speed going four-furlongs in 47:60. Plenty to like about the fourth choice of seven to hit the board.

Race 4 on the card at Pimlico (19:01) is a deep field with Betfred paying our four places and the horse I’m putting up is a 15/1 shot according the Morning Line. Power Back has not been at his best so far in the calendar year but has been showing glimpses of returning to his 2022 form, when we saw this Haynesfield colt win three of four in the middle of the year.

Last time out was his best performance of 2023, finishing fourth in a strong field at Laurel Park. His record so far this year is 8-7-6-6-4 so you can see the improvement. With that extra place of top four being paid out, looks set to be decent each-way value.

Over at Colonial Downs we have an interesting situation where we have Divinas Connection, who is top weight and coming off the fastest run of any horse in this field but is priced up at 8/1 on the Morning Line. Logic would dictate that this price will disappear soon and this four-year-old will go off significantly shorter.

Previous to breaking his maiden last time out, this Connect colt twice hit the board in June and has shown a much better turn of speed in recent runs. Those good performances came over at Charles Town in better fields than what Colonial Downs offers, so plenty of reason to think that he’ll be fighting at the front here.

Our final pick of the day comes from Penn National (23:00), where I’m plumping for the sixth-choice of seven according to the Morning Line, Mrs Bell. This four-year-old filly has won twice at six-furlongs on this track in the past three months and her speed figures have seen a significant uptick in her past few outings.

Even in her three runs at Penn National last year, she hit the board twice so her record at the track is 5-2-2-1-4-1 in six starts. If she goes off at anywhere near the projected 8/1 then is a good price to finish in the top three.