Delaware Park 2018 horses to watch: September 26
by Frank Vespe
Delaware Park has a nine-race card on Wednesday, September 29. Post time for the card is 1:15 p.m. Some horses to watch:
Race 4 – Maiden special weight
- Two-year-old fillies will go 5 1/2 furlongs on the dirt.
- Bon Caro, a mare by Bon Point, has been productive in the breeding shed. Her offspring include eight winners, among them the stakes winners Glitter City (by City Place) and Here’s Johnny (by Colonel John). Her next foal to race is here, in the form of #4 Whateverusaydear (8-1). This miss is by new sire Flashback — his oldest are two-year-olds — who’s off to a promising start with five winners to date. She has been training pretty steadily since early June, and trainer Gerald Bennett does pretty well with debut runners (22 percent), though just nine percent in a more limited sample with debut maiden special weight runners. He’ll leg up his go-to jockey Angel Suarez.
- #6 Vi Haines (2-1) cost $550,000 at auction. She’s a Candy Ride filly out of the Summer Squall mare Summer Raven. Summer Raven’s offspring include the millionaire Lewis Bay and the graded stakes winners Misconnect and Winslow Homer. She’s been training well enough for trainer Arnaud Delacour, including a bullet five furlongs on September 18. Delacour is 22 percent with debut maiden special weight runners and 32 percent at Delaware this year, and he’ll leg up Daniel Centeno; that duo has been winning at a 38 percent clip at a huge flat-bet profit in the last two months.
- Selections: 7-6-4
Race 8 – Allowance/optional claiming
- Fillies and mares three and up will go six furlongs on the main track in a second-level allowance with an optional claiming tag of $65,000.
- Did we mention Arnaud Delacour? He’s loaded for bear in this contest with a coupled entry of #1 Bloody Point and #1a Nomorerichblondes, which is lined at 6-1. The former, a War Front filly, won the first two races of her career before finishing second, albeit well beaten, in her third. Here, she’ll make her third start of 2017, showing three solid works, one a bullet, since her last start. She’ll retain regular pilot Jorge Vargas, Jr. in the irons, and we do love a lightly raced runner moving through her conditions in these allowance spots. The latter, by Hard Spun, won the 2017 Group 3 UAE Oaks before running up the track in that same year’s UAE Derby, won by Thunder Snow. She was off from March 2017 until August 19 of this year, and notably, Delacour liked what he was seeing from her enough to have her make her season debut in a stake at Saratoga. That didn’t go too well, but the easier company ought to be to her liking. Daniel Centeno will ride.
- Selections: 1/1a-2-3
ARABIAN WATCH
Arabian handicapping is provided by our friends at Arabian Finish Line.
No Arabian race today.
I too like the Bennett horse. The only thing that gives me pause is that he usually gives his successful firsters 4 gate works in a row. Love the early win sibs though and he also had a nice 22 second 2f work at Ocala Apr. sale. And watch the 1 horse finish 3rd at 35-1 to complete nice trifecta!