Delaware Park horses to watch: October 2

by | Oct 2, 2017 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

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

by Frank Vespe

Delaware Park has a nine-race card lined up for Monday, with the finale for Arabians. Scheduled post time is 1:15 p.m. Some horses to watch:

  • Race six is a first-level allowance going 1 1/16 miles on the turf, and while there are plenty of ways to look — among them the class-dropping Emelina and Lakota, who scratched out an Owners’ Day stake for this spot — we’ll turn our attention to #10 Party Nights (8-1). This British import, now racing for trainer Elizabeth Voss, just missed against similar three races back, and the winner of that race, Watch Your Six, returned to run third in the Boiling Springs Stakes at Monmouth Park. In subsequent tries, this one was thrashed against Saratoga allowance runners (and the winner of that race has been stakes-placed twice) and then against second-level allowance runners — an odd spot — locally, a race from which the winner, Lift Up, returned to run third against stakes rivals. Dropped into an easier spot here, she rates a solid chance to return to better form. Meet-leading rider Carol Cedeno is up.
  • The seventh is a 5 1/2 furlong maiden special weight test for two-year-olds, and while the almost-certain post time favorite — and most likely winner — is #5 You’re a Survivor (7-5) from the Larry Jones barn, a runner who’s been second in each of his two starts, we’re more intrigued by one of the debut runners in here. Owners Gary and Mary West dropped $250,000 on #7 Battle Zone (9-2) last September at the Keeneland yearling sale. She’s a daughter of Giant’s Causeway and the first foal to race out of the winning Bernardini mare Party of Interest, who herself fetched a half-million dollars as a broodmare prospect in Keeneland’s 2014 November mixed sale. Party of Interest is a half-sister to three stakes horses and two stakes producers, including the dam of G3 winner Tammy  the Torpedo. Battle Zone has a short but solid enough work tab for trainer Jason Servis, and Cedeno will ride this runner, as well.

ARABIAN WATCH

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

Another six furlong maiden claiming race for the Arabians closes out the day. There are some new players to the scene. Two first time starters are fillies from the barn of Scott Powell – Kk Ballou and Daze Of Awe. Daze Of Awe is from the first crop of champion Grilla out of a granddaughter of In Awe, a major stakes winner at Delaware Park from a few years back. The rest of the field consists of horses that have been racing most of the meet here. Maybe it’s finally time for Sand Token – he gets Keiber Coa today, which is certainly a plus.