The best in horse betting this Memorial Day holiday weekend is on the West Coast at Santa Anita Park. This Sunday’s racing lineup at Santa Anita is highlighted by the Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes as one of three major graded stakes events on the live card.

The other two major betting events on Sunday’s card are Grade 3 Daytona Stakes and the Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes. Both of these races will be run on the turf. The Daytona is a 6.5 furlong sprint for horses four and older. The Honeymoon covers 1 1/8 miles on turf and it is open to three-year old fillies.

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Monday’s featured race is the annual Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes with a total prize purse of $400,000. Contested over 1 ¼ miles on the dirt at Santa Anita, a talented field of Thoroughbreds three and older is coming together for this race.

Complementing the Gold Cup Stakes on Monday’s card is the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile for some of the best turf racers three and older. Also on Monday’s card is the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on the turf for fillies and mares three and older.

2022 Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes Predictions

When: Monday, May 30th 2022

Where: Santa Anita Park

As far as betting both days of racing at Santa Anita, I focused most of my attention on the projected field for this year’s Hollywood Gold Cup as the biggest betting event over the Memorial Day weekend. Horse Racing Nation has identified seven probable entries for Monday’s main event and the following three would be my picks for a winning trifecta play.

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Win: Stilleto Boy

Fresh off a victory in this year’s Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita on April 30, this four- year old gelding should be the class of the field for this race as well. Trained by Steve Moger, he has now placed in the money in six of his last seven events. Four of the races were run at Santa Anita to provide even more home track advantage for Monday’s main event.

Sired by Shackleford, a few other career highlights include a third-place finish in this year’s Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in late January. His most memorable run last year was a second-place finish at Santa Anita in the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes.

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Place: Royal Ship

Trainer Richard Mandella is looking to run Royal Ship in this year’s Gold Cup after posting an impressive victory at Santa Anita in the ungraded John Shear Mile on April 10. His winning time in that race was 1:36.07 while running past Triple Tap and Affable to get the win. This was the only race this year for the six-year old gelding.

While I am not sure he can get past Stilleto Boy on Monday given the added distance of this race, Royal Ship would be the next best horse in the projected field if he runs.

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Show: Spielberg

Once a hot commodity as a promising three-year old, this four-year old Kentucky-bred colt continues to be competitive in any race he runs. He was third behind Stilleto Boy and Express Train in April’s Californian Stakes. He also finished just outside the money in this year’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in early March.

Trained by Sean McCarthy, the son of Union Rags has run the best races of his career at a slightly longer distance.