Delaware Park horses to watch: June 3
Off at Delaware Park. Photo © www.HoofprintsInc.com.
by Frank Vespe
A pair of intriguing allowance contests highlight Delaware Park’s opening day card today. The eighth race is a five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares that have never won a race other than maiden, claiming, starter or state-bred, and the ninth is a second-level allowance/optional claimer going one mile 70 yards on the main track.
Some horses of interest:
In the seventh, three horses cut the right profile of nicely bred, lightly raced runners from good barns trying to move through their conditions. Any of the three could be major players down the road.
#6 Princess Lu Lu (3-1) won at first asking for trainer Michael Stidham. The sophomore daughter of Harlan’s Holiday has been second and third against allowance foes at Churchill, Fair Grounds, and Keeneland since, and she’s been training forwardly for this…
#7 Molly O’Shea (2-1) took six cracks to break her maiden, finally scoring two back at the Fair Grounds. Last out she was fourth in a Laurel Park allowance but may not have liked the boggy going. The daughter of Cape Blanco is trained by Larry Jones…
#9 Contributing (4-1) had a useful season debut at the end of April, when she rallied after breaking a step slow to finish second and has finished first or second in two turf sprints. The pricey Medaglia d’Oro filly is trained by Tom Proctor…
A pair of Larry Jones-trained runners are the most promising in the ninth, though hard hitting #7 Bawlmer Hon (3-1), for trainer Mark Shuman, rates a chance to wire this field…
#2 Midnight On Oconee (6-1) offered early promise, winning two of her first three and later running second in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at the Fair Grounds. But she’s tailed off since, and Jones will be hoping to get the Midnight Lute filly back on her A game today, in just her second start of the year…
The other Jones trainee, #6 Proud and Fearless (2-1) has won two straight, most recently posting a dominant, front-running allowance score at Parx Racing. She’ll be reunited with jockey Mitchell Murrill in her first start since early April…
