August 25 racing highlights: Slip the Cable favored in CT allowance

TODAY’S ACTION: Slip the Cable looks to find winning ways

Thursday afternoon’s feature at Delaware Park is a one-turn dash on the turf contested at the about distance of five furlongs and a pair of three-year-old fillies will garner ample support in this allowance/optional $25,000 claiming affair.

Valueable Charmer (7-2), a sophomore daughter of Value Plus trained by Gerald Bennett, won her last start over the main track at Monmouth Park against allowance foes by getting 5 1/2-furlongs in 1:05.01. She already sports three wins from 10 starts this year and seasonal earnings approaching $100,000, including a win in an allowance affair over the Delaware Park main track in May.

Maryland invader Class Edge (9-2) will also look to make her presence known when the three-year-old daughter of Indygo Shiner trained by Dale Capuano arrives off a solid second-place finish behind Nite Delite in a one-turn allowance dash on the Laurel grass. Class Edge has won once in three starts this year and twice in six career outings, and she has only been worse than third once along the way.  She looms a major threat to Valueable Charmer and their older rivals in this event.

Thursday evening a pair of allowance races at Charles Town could serve as preps for the upcoming West Virginia Breeders Classics card at the Jefferson County oval on October 8, although one of them is restricted to West Virginia-breds while the other features a West Virginia-bred who should be the post time choice against open company.

Thursday’s sixth race is a two-turn allowance for state-bred three-year-olds that have never won two races and at least a handful of the 10 sophomores could cross the wire first in this 6 1/2-furlong affair. In fact, the public could have a difficult time finding a favorite with Borderline (7-2), This Is Me Now (4-1), Blazin Luck (9-2) and Windsors Flight (5-1) all within close proximity of one another on the morning line.

Borderline ended his freshman campaign with an easy win locally against maiden special weight foes at the one-turn dash distance of 4 1/2-furlongs, but was fifth in his seasonal debut. Windsors Flight won at second asking for trainer James W. Casey after finishing second in his career debut. This Is Me Now ended his juvenile season with a win against maiden special weight foes at this distance but is winless in seven outings this year for owner-trainer Crystal Pickett. Blazin Luck was sixth in the Robert Leavitt Memorial last out for trainer Ollie Figgins, III, while Awsome Faith broke his maiden by seven lengths last out by getting the 6 1/2-furlongs in 1:18.57 here on August 6 for trainer Jeff Allen.

Two races later a compact field of six older runners will go postward in a seven-furlong allowance for horses that are non-winners of one race other than in open conditions. But Slip The Cable (7-5), a four-year-old Midshipman colt trained by Jeff Runco, arrives with five wins from nine lifetime starts but does not have his state-bred victories count against him. He won five of six starts last year for Runco, including the West Virginia Lottery Breeders Classic and three allowance events, but those do not count against him in this spot.

Looking to foil Slip The Cable’s local success and upend him in his early WVBC prep are English Manor (5-2), Reeves Hill (9-2) and Riley Coyote (5-1). English Manor makes his Charles Town debut for trainer Kim Graci and arrives with nine wins and earnings of over $260,000 from 63 career tries. Reeves Hill made his first 28 starts in Canada and owns a 4-3-10 slate and $115,000 banked from 40 career tries, while Riley Coyote has won four of eight starts this year for trainer Reid Nagle but all four tallies have come against claimers.