Expert Pick of the Week: 2022 Winning Colors Stakes

May 27, 2022 John Mucciolo/TwinSpires.com

A compact, but talented, field of six will go postward in Monday’s $200,000 Winning Colors S. (G3) at Churchill Downs. The feature on the holiday card is run at six panels on the dirt and led by defending champion Sconsin from the barn of Greg Foley. By Include, the five-year-old endured a fine 2021 season while facing some of the best runners in her division, and she seems poised to kick-start this season on a positive note. The mare is the Expert Pick of the Week.

Sconsin has compiled a bright 7-4-2-0 mark beneath the Twin Spires in her lifetime and also shows a 3-2-1-0 mark at the distance. The Lloyd Madison Farms homebred has always possessed a big late kick, but she improved her tactical speed last year, and the lass appears to have landed in a realistic spot to start her 2022 voyage, as well. Tyler Gaffalione, who guided the Kentucky-bred home to a pair of stakes wins last campaign, will be in the silks.

Joyful Cadence, one of two contenders in the cast for conditioner John Ortiz, will be the main danger to the top selection. The four-year-old didn’t run her best race in a deep allowance tilt at Oaklawn Park most recently, but she seems like a very good fit in this particular spot at a fair price. Bred in the Bluegrass State, the bay ran big in a pair of stakes tilts as a sophomore and rates a solid chance to complete the exacta on Monday.

The daughter of Runhappy has good gate presence and will be sent to the front with a clean break by pilot Joe Talamo. I envision the miss, who has posted a pair of solid local morning drills in advance of the affair, to dictate things to the top of the lane before being encountered by Sconsin nearing the midstretch mark.

An exacta with #3 Sconsin on top of #1 Joyful Cadence in the Winning Colors Stakes is the Best Bet of the Week.