Delaware Park 2019 horses to watch: August 22

Photo by HoofprintsInc.com.

Normally in this slot, we cite a couple of races and a horse or two worth watching in each. But for Thursday’s card, let’s dig into just one race: the fifth, an allowance/optional claiming race for two-year-olds that have never won a race “other than” with an optional claiming tag of $65,000.

The race has attracted a field of six to go 5 1/2 furlongs on the main track, and their number includes two of the top four juveniles to break their maidens thus far at Delaware Park (see our list here) as well as a horse who earned “honorable mention” in that same article.

The favorite here, and fourth-ranked juvenile on our list, is #2 The Minit I See U (9-5). The gelded son of Star Guitar took three cracks to break his maiden, but the first two of those came over sloppy or muddy tracks. In his third try, the Jose Camejo trainee caught a fast track for the first time, dueled with the early leader through fast early fractions, and pulled away to win by a couple of lengths. For the fourth straight race, he’ll have Carol Cedeno in the irons.

The bad news for The Minit I See U is that the two horses that have beaten him both are in this race, as well.

#6 Sight of Heaven (5-2), our third-ranked juvenile maiden-breaker, crushed The Minit I see You by six lengths back in June. That was this Anthony Pecoraro trainee’s second career start — he’d finished fourth on debut (behind our top-ranked juvenile winner, Tomato Bill) — and this runner simply ran his rivals off their feet over a sloppy, sealed track. There wasn’t much wrong with his follow-up to that, either, a third-place finish beind the speedy filly Gifted Heart and promising John Servis trainee Mischevious Alex. Jeremy Rose (17-for-48 at the meet) has the mount.

After finishing behind Sight of Heaven, The Minit I See U tried it again just three weeks later and was again denied, this time run down on the money by #3 Boat Over the Hill (7-2), honorable mention on our list. It was an impressive debut victory in which this Jamie Ness trainee rallied from well back to just get up. The son of Tapiture was less impressive next time out, finishing fourth — a bit less than a length behind show horse Sight of Heaven — in a Laurel Park allowance. 

Those three certainly are major players in here, but they aren’t alone. Also worth a look is the Claudio Gonzaelz-trained #4 Lebda (6-1). This son of Raison d’Etat cost just $1,000 at auction as a yearling, but nearly paid huge dividends right out of the box when he was second by less than a length in a $100,000 maiden race at Aqueduct in April behind the Wesley Ward-trained Maven, who followed up with a win in Group 3 company in France. This one graduated next time out at Laurel Park, and the runner-up graduated in his follow-up. This will be Lebda’s first start since May, and his last couple of works seem to suggest he’ll be ready. Katie Davis will ride.

• Selections: 4-6-3-2

Arabian Watch

Thanks to Stephanie Ruff and Arabian Finish Line for giving us insights to the Arabian racing at Delaware Park.

No Arabian race today.

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