Delaware Park 2018 horses to watch: September 19

by | Sep 19, 2018 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

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

by Frank Vespe

Delaware Park has an eight-race card on Wednesday, September 19, with the finale for Arabians. Post time for the card is 1:15 p.m. Some horses to watch:

Race 3 – Maiden special weight

  • Two-year-old fillies will go a mile and 70 yards in a race that was originally slated for the turf but will be run instead on the main track.
  • With the race taken off the turf, that puts a bevy of main-track-only entrants in play. Among the most interesting of those is #1x Tobago (part of entry, 9-2). A $425,000 auction purchase as a yearling for Augustin Stable, the Graham Motion trainee is set to make her debut here. She’s by top sire Pioneerof the Nile and is out of the ultra-productive Rubiano mare Caroni. Four of her siblings are stakes winners, among them the multiple graded winner Red Ruby (who won the Delaware Oaks and Black-Eyed Susan earlier this year), 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Beautician, and Grade 3 winner Mo Tom. Motion wins with 13 percent of his first-time starters, and this miss has been training steadily at Fair Hill for the last three months. Jorge Vargas, Jr. will ride.
  • Valbenny, a daughter of Val Royal, was a pretty good racehorse, winning three graded stakes in her career. She hasn’t yet delivered much in the breeding shed; only one of her four offspring to race is a winner (although that one, Unfazed, was never worse than second in four career starts). She may get a fifth starter today if #8 Gardenista (6-1) goes postward. The daughter of Curlin, a homebred for Lael Stable, has been training forwardly towards her debut for trainer Arnaud Delacour, who scores with 21 percent of his first-time starters. He’s slated to give a leg up to Daniel Centeno; the Centeno-Delacour combo has scored at a 38 percent clip the last two months with a flat-bet profit.
  • Selections: 8-1x-12-2

 

Race 6 – Allowance/optional claiming

  • Fillies and mares three and up will tackle a second-level allowance with an optional claiming tag of $30,000. This race was originally scheduled for 7 1/2 furlongs on turf but has been moved to the main track.
  • #7 Nomorerichblondes (5-2) showed some early promise in her career, winning the G3 UAE Oaks in a 2017 season which saw her earn $200,000. But following an up-the-track performance in that year’s UAE Derby March 25, the four-year-old Hard Spun filly didn’t race again until last month. Her first try off the 17-month layoff wasn’t much to look at,  as she finished last of five in a minor stake at Saratoga. But it seems notable that trainer Arnaud Delacour liked what he was seeing from her enough to try her in a stake first off the bench, and she’s showing three good works in the interim. He’ll leg up his go-to rider locally, Daniel Centeno.
  • Selections: 7-1-2

 

ARABIAN WATCH

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

The last race today is an allowance optional claiming race for fillies and mares going six furlongs. Royally Bred, who most recently finished third in the grade 1 Buzz Brauninger Arabian Distaff H. at 1 1/8, looks to be the heavy favorite at this shorter distance and softer spot. RB Gaim Changer, with Keibar Coa, certainly has a chance for a top three finish as does TM Maddamee and Pams Masquerade.