Delaware Park horses to watch: September 23
Off at Delaware Park. Photo © www.HoofprintsInc.com.
by Frank Vespe
Delaware Park has a nine-race card slated for Saturday, including two for Arabians, among them the Delaware Park Arabian Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes. Scheduled post time is 1:15 p.m. Some horses to watch:
- The fourth is a maiden special weight test for two-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Blue Union Rags (5-2) is the favorite and certainly rates a big shot in here off a runner-up try in her first turf effort at Monmouth Park. Our horse to watch, however, is the Mike Stidham firster, Last Play (9-2). It’s a tough assignment — going a route of ground in her first start, but she’s got a steady string of works for more than two months in preparation. She’s a daughter of Stormy Atlantic out of the graded stakes-winning mare Colonial Play; that makes her a half-sister to Marsh Side, the multiple Grade 1-winning turfer who earned over $2.3 million. Angel Serpa is up.
- In the fifth, a one-mile claiming event on the main track, the lightly raced Rockaroundtheclock (3-1) cuts an interesting profile. The Andrew Simoff trainee has won three of four, last out taking an off-the-turf event in front-running fashion. But she’s also won from off the pace, a useful versatility, and her desire to get there first is a positive, too. Bug boy Erick Garcia, who’s won three of seven at the meeting, takes the mount. Forty-six race veteran Scorpion Aly is the 2-1 favorite in here.
ARABIAN WATCH
Arabian handicapping is provided by our friends at Arabian Finish Line.
A good group of 3-year-old fillies are going to post in the $20,000 Delaware Park Arabian Juvenile Fillies Championship (Gr.3). Uptown Sandy Girl, RB Gaim Changer and R B Kindle look to be the top fillies. They are both talented fillies who have not finished worse than second in their brief careers. R B Kindle gets Ricardo Chiappe who has done well since coming back from an injury. Royally Bred has the pedigree to easy cover the 1 mile and 70 yards. She is getting better with each race and could step up big today.
The final race of the day is for Arabian fillies and mares, who will race 1 mile and 70 yards in an allowance contest. The race is headed by Last Call MHF, who finished a close second to Ivory Shores in the Buzz Brauninger Arabian Distaff H. (Gr.1) in her last start over a sloppy racetrack. She will be challenged by Pams Masquerade who is one of the most consistent Arabian racehorses in the country. Risky Red and Miss Paradise both could get a piece of the purse if they run to form, but they have both been inconsistent.
Frank,
Thanks again for your work at Delaware. I’m beginning to rely more and more on Trakus for my handicapping. For example, in studying the Travers for today’s Penn Derby, it show that Irap actually ran faster then West Coast, because of his wide trip.(think irap ran 70 feet farther, running .03 mph faster then West Coast)
Its frustrating that Mid-Atlantic tracks don’t have this technology. If Indiana Grand has it, how hard can it be for Laurel, Delaware, etc. to implement this vital handicapping tool?
Thanks Frank,
Bill
Thanks, BIll – much appreciated. Re: Trakus – the answer isn’t that it’s hard – it’s that it’s expensive, though I think you may be seeing it in some of the region soon enough.
Good to know, thanks. Btw, jeez, wouldn’t blame you if you ignore Delaware’s card tomorrow. It”s tough to look at! A whopping $134k in purses. If I’m Jed Doro, I would put my best product of racing on Monday’s, when the competition is light. But what do I know, I tried to beat Bob Baffert yesterday! He is now 19-15-1-1 in graded stakes,, dirt route winner last out, Mike Smith up.