Delaware Park horses to watch: June 11, 2018

by | Jun 11, 2018 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

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

by Frank Vespe

Delaware Park will present an eight-race card on Monday, with the finale an Arabian contest. As of 11:30 a.m., the main track is sloppy, and they are off the turf. Post time is 1:15 p.m.

Race 4 – Maiden special weight

  • Fillies and mares three and up go one mile on the main track. Six runners are entered in the two-turn contest.
  • #3 Gone to Austin is the 3-2 morning line favorite. The Medaglia d’Oro filly is trained by Tom Albertrani for Godolphin LLC. Last out, in her second start and first around two turns, she finished second in a maiden special weight at Tampa, beaten by one length by a runner who returned to be second in her follow-up. She hasn’t raced since April 21 and will have Daniel Centeno up. She’s showing two sluggish works in the interim.
  • #5 Monhegan (3-1) is a half to the graded stakes winner Coal Play. The Michael Matz trainee, making her career debut, is a daughter of English Channel, suggesting the grass may be in her future, has plenty of works under her belt in preparation for this one.
  • Selections: 5-3-4

Race 8 – Allowance/optional claiming

  • Fillies and mares three and up will go 1 mile 70 yards on the turf in this first-level allowance with an optional claiming tag of $16,000. The race has been taken off the turf, resulting in a ton of scratches.
  • #10 Maya Malibu (10-1) is one who’s still in. She ran second in last year’s Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga, impressing trainer Graham Motion enough that he ran the daughter of Malibu Moon in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She is out of the multiple graded winner Island Sand. She was well beaten last out by the talented Mo Smart but still has plenty of right to improve here in her third start of the year. Motion will leg up Jorge Vargas, Jr.
  • Selections: 10-9-3

ARABIAN WATCH

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

The final race on the card today is a stacked allowance race that features two Darley Champions and numerous stakes horses. The downside is this race is six furlongs and most of the big names prefer going at least a mile. Easter Man and RB Nash (both two-time Darley Champions) come from Jerenesto Torrez’s barn and will be the probable favorites. They last ran in second and third in a grade 1 stakes at Santa Anita. Fourth in that same race is Mystical MHF, but he will likely need a longer race. Grade 1 winner Thess Is Awesome is making his first start of the year, but is from the red hot barn of Lynn Ashby and Cre Run Enterprises. Kirsten Swan is aboard. If he gets loose on the lead, he could be tough. Finally, Last Call MHF is a tough, grade 1-placed mare, but she is facing some really tough competition here.