Saturday at Saratoga was not good on the tipping front for me and well, just flat out not good. We return to the Extra Places column where we’ve had three profitable days out of our last four pieces. As always all of our selections are each-way and picked from horses outside of the top three according to the Morning Line odds…

We kick-off our picks for Monday at Finger Lakes where in the second race of the day the joint-fifth favourite is having quite a good run of things at the New York course. This four-year-old filly is clearly suited to shorter races having seen her best results and five-and-a-half furlongs or shorter but she’ll go six here and last time out this Jeremiah Englehart trained horse finished a very close second at this distance. In her previous five races on this course, it has been two wins, a second, a third and a seventh. If this was a furlong shorter, Crosstalk would likely be the favourite but I like her finishing top three at a big price.

In the 19:01 at Fort Erie up in Canada, I’m taking Le Grand Garcon in his debut. Some really solid bullet works here have enticed me into this one with the Tom Steer trained four-year-old being a late bloomer. Priced up as the fifth choice of seven, he is certainly the most intriguing entry in this one.

The 19:50 at Thistledown is an extremely low quality race, which often means a longshot has a chance to pull off the upset or at least get in and among the favourites. For that reason I’m going with another joint-fifth choice according to the Morning Line odds in Dancing for Money. Her speed figure has improved in three straight starts at the Ohio track and her recent record has been more impressive going the full mile distance.