Delaware Park horses to watch: July 21, 2018

by | Jul 21, 2018 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

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

by Frank Vespe

Delaware Park has a nine-race card on tap for July 21, with the final two races both for Arabians. Post time for the card is 1:15 p.m., and here are some horses to watch:

Race 5 – Maiden Special Weight

  • Fillies and mares three-years-old and up are slated to go five furlongs on the turf (weather permitting).
  • #5 Music Maker (7-2) will make her career debut here for top trainer Arnaud Delacour. She had a couple of fits and starts before getting working in earnest in late May, and while her work tab is fairly modest in terms of times, Delacour (20 percent strike rate with first-time starters) knows how to get them ready to win first out of the box. This one has plenty of turf breeding; her sire Gio Ponti won numerous Grade 1 events on the green en route to earning over $6 million, and her dam, the Unbridled’s Song mare Lorelei’s Song, also won on turf. But if it comes off the turf, that might work, too; Lorelei’s Song began her career with a win on a wet-fast main track. Angel Serpa is named to ride.
  • Trainer Mike Stidham scored with a Godolphin debut runner Friday at Laurel Park and will send out another supremely well-bred Godolphin starter in this spot in the form of #6 She’s Funny (9-5). The Tapit filly is out of the Distorted Humor mare Hystericalady, a Grade 1 winner on the track who earned over $2 million. This miss made the first four starts of her career, without making much impact, in southern California in Richard Mandella’s barn; she’ll make her first start on the East Coast and for Stidham and has been training well since her most recent start May 26. Brian Pedroza will ride.
  • Selections: 6-5-4

 

Race 7 – Allowance/optional claiming

  • Fillies and mares three-years-old and up are scheduled to go a mile on the turf in a second-level allowance with an optional claiming price of $30,000.
  • Here’s how much her connections liked #2 Noted and Quoted (8-5): she made the third, fourth, and fifth starts of her career in Grade 1 company, the third of those in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, in which she finished seventh. She won the G1 Chandelier at Santa Anita prior to the Breeders’ Cup and was fourth in the G1 Del Mar Debutante. She spent most of ’17 trying stakes company, with a runner-up effort her best outcome, and has not raced since September 30 of last year. She also has been transferred from trainer Bob Baffert to Mike Stidham by owners Speedway Stable. She’s been training forwardly at Fair Hill for Stidham, with four of the six works in which there were multiple workers at the distance being the fastest recorded that day. Brian Pedroza will ride.

 

 

ARABIAN WATCH

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

Today’s Arabian race is a high quality allowance full of stakes-caliber horses going 1 1/8 miles. Grade 1 winner Quick And Rich is making his first start back in the U.S. after an unsuccessful season in the UAE. If he is back to his previous form he should be tough. Also from trainer Lynn Ashby’s barn is Thess Is Awesome. Another grade 1 winner, Thess Is Awesome runs a little hot and cold, but if he’s hot he could go wire to wire. RB Nash has run some excellent races this year, only to finish just behind the winners. You would expect him to be among the top three. Mystical MHF is another one that runs hot and cold, but he definitely should like the added distance. Finally, Madjikman and Chndakasexpress are taking a big step up in class, but if the others falter, either one could pick up the pieces to at least get a top three finish.