Delaware Park horses to watch: August 31

by | Aug 31, 2017 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

Off at Delaware Park. Photo © www.HoofprintsInc.com.

by Frank Vespe

There’s a 10-race card at Delaware Park Thursday. Post time is 1:15 p.m. Some horses to watch:

  • The sixth is a $6,250 starter allowance that’s attracted eight betting interests set to sprint six furlongs on the main track. This is a race where the logical horses appear to be, well, the logical horses. The favorite, White Bluff (2-1),  has been in terrific form of late, with four wins in six starts and enters off a clear win against better over the strip. If there’s a chink in his armor, it’s his modest one-for-eight ledger at the trip, but he won his last six-furlong race by four lengths, so that may be moot now. Still, let’s give a look at Haywired (3-1). The Aldana Gonzalez trainee also enters in good form, with three wins, two seconds, and a third from his last six. What’s more, he’s a six-furlong specialist, with nine wins in 22 tries at the trip. He’s showing a work since his last race, August 2, and will get the meet’s second-leading rider, Scott Spieth, in the irons.
  • The eighth is a second level allowance, also sprinting six furlongs on the main track, and a salty crew is set to contest it. The morning line favorite, taking advantage of the optional $30,000 claiming tag, is Bust Another (5-2), the winner of the 2016 Mike Lee Stakes for NY-breds. Two we’re more intrigued by are Running Mate (4-1) and Winplaceorshowono (6-1). The former, trained by Larry Jones, made his first start in half a year July 21 and ran second to Blu Moon Ace in an allowance test; that outcome was flattered this past weekend when Blu Moon Ace won decisively in the Coalition Stakes at Timonium. The latter has won two straight (and two of three in his career) for trainer Ron Alfano and Rickman Racing, most recently outslugging Thurman Merman to take an allowance test by almost three lengths in a sharp 1:09.74. That runner came back to win an allowance over the strip August 21. Top rider Alex Cintron is scheduled to ride the Maryland-bred Dance With Ravens colt.

ARABIAN WATCH

Arabian handicapping is provided by our friends at Arabian Finish Line.

No Arabian races are scheduled this Thursday at Delaware Park.