Delaware Park 2019 horses to watch: September 18

Photo by HoofprintsInc.com.

Delaware Park has an eight-race card lined up for Wednesday, September 18. Some horses to watch:

Race 7 — Maiden special weight

• Maidens three years-old and up will go one mile on the turf.
• Interesting race here with a couple of first-timers and a couple of horses coming off (or recently off) layoffs worth a look. The Arnaud Delacour-trained #2 Mind the Gap (3-1) is one of those layoff horses; the sophomore Street Sense colt made his first start of ’19 about a month ago at Monmouth Park and gave a decent account of himself, rallying into a clear third while never a threat to the top pair after hopping at the start. He can take a step forward in this one, his second start of the season. The other layoff horse in here is the Rodney Jenkins trainee #10 Scaramucci (8-5), who’ll make his first start in a year in this one. This Flatter gelding was a $220,000 auction purchase as a yearling and in four juvenile starts was second or third four times. The long layoff — and returning in a two-turn race — are obvious areas of concern, though Jenkins has a good record bringing horses back off a break.
• Two first-timers worth a look are #3 Hondo (12-1) and #7 Shore Magic (2-1). The former, trained by Stacy Hendry, is a son of Tapizar who’s a half-brother to three horses that have earned over $200,000, including the stakes winners Classify and Simplify. He’s showing four works in preparation for his debut. The latter is trained by Christophe Clement, and while we generally are not partial to New York shippers making their debuts here — if the connections really liked them, they’d stay home, where the purses are much larger — Clement is 2-for-3 at the meet with first-timers. This one is a son of Medaglia d’Oro out of the winning Arch mare South Shore and has several works in the bank. Paco Lopez is in for just two mounts today, this being one of them.
• Selections: 2-7-10-3

Race 8 — Allowance

• Fillies and mares three and up will go 6 furlongs on the main track in a first-level allowance.
• The speed figs for #1 Utterly Enchanting (6-1) aren’t great, but the results to date haven’t been bad at all. The Aimee Hall trainee has a win and a second from three starts. Last time out, in her first try against winners, the daughter of Despite the Odds rallied from the rear of the field to be fourth, and she can improve switching back to the main track. Regular pilot Carol Cedeno (22% at the meet) remains aboard.
• Useful return to action last out by #3 Bettyann (8-1). The Mike Gorham-trained Arkansas-bred, making her first start since January, led for a long way and remained in the thick of things until fading in the final furlong to be third. She can certainly take a step forward today in her second start after a seven-month break. Alex Cintron will ride.
• Selections: 1-6-3-4

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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