Wednesday was a pretty decent day for the US Extra Places column as we had one winner and a place from two starts with the other two selections being non-runners. As always all of our selections are from outside the top three in the Morning Line and are from Betfred’s selection of Extra Place Races where we pay out three places instead of two…

Way back when I used to work full-time on a US Horse Racing website and I had a few tells when making picks. One of them was Mobil colts at Mountaineer Park. Sweet Lemon Drop might not be running at the West Virginia track on Thursday evening but this five-year-old has in the recent past and won. His last two runs have been way below his career average hence the M/L odds pricing him up as the sixth choice of seven but he has finished top three in four straight before that stumble. If he is back on career average form, has a good chance to place at what is likely to be a big price.

Later on the card we have what looks to be a really decent one-mile claiming race where four of the seven runners won last time out. This then should be competitive and the fifth choice in the betting is the four-year-old My Two Aunt Joans. The reason he’s not among the top choices according to the Morn Line is he often runs at six furlongs and this is going that extra two. His sprinting form is electric having won or placed in six straight shorter than a mile. At the price worth a small dabble to see if this is the race where he can hold on down the stretch.

Last up is a wildcard selection from the 22:30 at Del Mar where My Man Fleury makes his career debut. The three-year-old has got a very good jockey on board in Mike Smith and in the only bullet I can find on record, went three-furlongs in 36 seconds on a fast Los Alamitos track. Very interesting and in a State Bred race going only five-and-a-half furlongs, I’ll put up the joint-fifth favourite each-way.

*All of our selections are each-way and Betfred are paying out three places in all three selected races.