Imagine a late January racing card with sunny skies, an afternoon high of 68 degrees and no precipitation. But don’t let your imagination run off. That’s the forecast for Tampa Bay Downs this Friday,. And if the weatherman cooperates, the 50-cent Late Pick 4 could feature all double-digit sized fields. Here’s a closer look with a suggested $21 play:

TAM 6th race (3:05 p.m. EST) -- With a couple short-priced picks in the middle legs of the sequence, go deep in this wide-open $5,000 claiming race in hopes of triggering a decent Pick 4 payout. COALMINER’S KITTEN, first or second in 7 of 9 starts last year, broke through the gate and finished second in this spot in his first try at Tampa. He is the favorite but should be used on the ticket. The better-priced options include: BATL KING (7-2), who finished third in an open $6,250 claimer two back and runs for the cheapest tag of his career; WHITING FIELD (12-1), who gets in light-weighted and looks to rebound from a dull try for a barn in the midst of an 8-for-39 streak with the ‘second off 30-60 days’ angle; FEELTHEBEAT (15-1), who was taken off the rail while setting a solid pace before finishing 3-1/4 lengths behind Coalminer’s Kitten, at 7F two back; WILLTORUN (4-1), who is four months removed from a voided vet claim at the $12,500 level; FLOAT ON (6-1), who is 0-7 at the distance but has plenty of back-class to summon for a new trainer on a 21/5-4-6 run with claims; and RUSSIAN HAMMER (10-1), who was 9-wide and finished third behind Coalminer’s Kitten as the favorite.

TAM 7th race (3:35 p.m. EST) -- SIX FORTYFIVE pressed winning favorite Aegon Targaryen – a recent odds-on repeater with a 79 Beyer -- to the far turn before fading two starts ago. But the 5-year-old proved versatile with a last-to-first move while stepping up in class off the claim. He threw his head at the start and trailed on the backstretch as the pace slowed, but he negotiated traffic and exploded on the rail in mid-stretch to win. He is today’s solo play.

TAM 8th race (4:05 p.m. EST) -- SNOWYTE broke her maiden with Leon aboard off a similar three-month rest at Monmouth, then finished between three next-out winners in a six-figure allowance at Keeneland. WITS AND WAGERS can’t seem to get out of her own way at the break, rallying from far back for three consecutive third-place finishes at various Churchill Downs distances. She followed the move of the runaway winner last out in a race that timed 2/5 of a second slower than a $50,000 starter allowance for 2-year-old boys on the same card. Her trainer, Jose Gallegos, has three seconds and a third from five first-off-the-claims at Tampa in the last 13 months.

TAM 9th race (4:40 p.m. EST) -- UP FOR AN OSCAR is the horse to beat on paper. He just missed at this distance on the Aqueduct lawn with an 85 Beyer that towers over this field and he did it off a nine-month layoff. He added blinkers, gained 3-wide on the final turn from post 12 but came up empty in the stretch in a follow-up try. MORTAL LOCK also earned his top speed figure at this distance on the Aqueduct lawn, rallying for second behind A Bourbon For Toby, who reeled off five consecutive 80-plus speed figures in the MSW ranks and tested Grade 2 company along the way. Both runners get upgraded after they faced Cruise the Nile last month before he repeated with a sharp allowance score on Gulfstream Park’s synthetic track. JOBU gets a longshot spot on the ticket. He took money and showed speed first-out at Parx against an improving allowance-type winner, worked well at Tampa since that race and his dam, Our Cause, produced stakes-winning turf marathoner Summer Cause (2-7, $128k on turf).


Suggested 50-Cent Ticket

TAM 6th Race: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10
TAM 7th Race: 6
TAM 8th Race: 6, 7
TAM 9th Race: 3, 4, 9

Cost: $21