Delaware Park horses to watch: July 5, 2018

by | Jul 5, 2018 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

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

by Frank Vespe

Delaware Park has a 10-race card for July 5, and the finale is for Arabians. Post time is 1:15 p.m. Here are some horses to watch:

Race 3 – Maiden special weight

  • Two-year-olds will go 5 1/2 furlongs on the main track.
  • All six horses entered are scheduled to make their debuts.
  • #1 Bellator (5-2) comes from the productive John Servis barn, which is scoring at a 24 percent clips this year (though is winless at Delaware). This To Honor and Serve colt cost $85,000 at auction as a yearling and is out of the Woodman mare Peace River Lady. He is a half-brother to the graded stakes winner Heavenly Landing, although that runner was best on turf, and is a full brother to a winner in Honor River. He has been training well enough for Servis and will have Frankie Pennington in the irons.
  • #3 Lucky Bull (8-1) is a son of Bullsbay out of the Unbridled Jet mare Lucky Bridle. Owner Kathleen Willier dropped $30,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling sale, and he is a half to three winners, including the stakes winner Lionhearted Lady. He’s been training decently, although it’s perhaps notable that trainer Ham Smith chooses to start him here in Delaware, rather than at his Laurel Park base. Edwin Gonzalez will ride.
  • #5 My Macho (6-1) is a Mucho Macho Man colt who will take his bow here for trainer Graham Motion. He’s a homebred for Alex Campbell and a half-brother to six winners, among them the G1 winner Karlovy Vary. Motion is 14 percent with first-time starters in maiden special weight company, is red-hot at Delaware Park, and will leg up Jorge Vargas, Jr. (who is 47 percent aboard Motion horses in the last 60 days). This guy has been working well enough up at Fair Hill.
  • Selections: 5-1-3

 

Race 8 – Allowance/optional claiming

  • Three-year-olds and up will will travel 1 1/2 miles on the turf in a first-level allowance with an optional claiming tag of $16,000.
  • Another Graham Motion trainee, #8 Nakamura (7-2) certainly presents with the right set of credentials to win this type of race. The sophomore Animal Kingdom colt has a win from four starts and his two starts since the win weren’t bad, either. Two back he was beaten a couple of lengths in an allowance race by Shahroze, who returned to win a Grade 3 race next out at Woodbine, and last out, he was beaten three in the Stanton Stakes after finishing up well. His breeding suggests the distance shouldn’t be beyond his scope, either. Jorge Vargas, Jr. will ride.
  • Selections: 8-2-3

 

 

ARABIAN WATCH

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

The claiming event for Arabians will be held at six furlongs. Probably favorite will be Simon Hobson’s RB Hocus Pocus, who won last time out among similar company. Burn Notice MC, from the red hot barn of Christian Castro and Wallace Neilson, just broke his maiden less than two weeks ago, but is going up against much tougher company in this race. Lazur Hess finished third in his first start this year and will likely improve off of that effort. His connections, Cre Run Farm, Lynn Ashby and Kirsten Swan, have done very well so far this meet. An interesting horse is Twice Rich, who has not run in almost a year. He does have six wins and is graded stakes-placed in his lifetime.