Delaware Park picks and horses to watch: July 11

Photo by HoofprintsInc.com.

We’ve got Delaware Park picks and horses to watch for today’s Delaware Handicap day card. Good luck!

Race 6 — Dashing Beauty Stakes

• Fillies and mares three and up will go six furlongs on the main track for a $75,000 purse.
• Maybe – maybe? – #1 Bronx Beauty will offer up some value. She was off-form maybe just a bit at the end of last year, but those were tries in graded company (in one of which she was 50-1). She’s the defending champ here, and trainer Anthony Margotta says that, since his team went to Florida for the winter, his horses didn’t miss a beat. You can draw a line through that last start — an experiment going long that didn’t quite pan out. Back at her preferred distance on a track at which she’s run well, she can get back to her better efforts.
• Maybe the most interesting horse here from a “horse to watch” perspective is #3 A Bit of Both. The Paynter filly previously toiled for now-indicted trainer Jason Servis. Here she makes her first start in Brad Cox’s barn. She ran in the same two graded races as did Bronx Beauty over the winter, with simiarly poor results. But she’s a stakes winner on turf, dirt, and synthetic, so she’s got a little bit of talent, as well as seven wins in 11 starts.
• How can you not love #6 Anna’s Bandit? The Maryland-sired, West Virginia-bred Jerry Robb trainee is 17-for-35 with nearly $800,000 in career earnings. She always runs a good race and enters here after an easy win in the Original Gold for WV-breds — but the water here’s a lot (that is, A LOT) deeper than that. Seven-eighths is probably her very best distance, but she’s run plenty of good races at this trip.
• It’s entirely possible that #10 Chalon will simply prove to be too good in this spot. Her last was a disaster, but trainer Arnaud Delacour wheels her back on just two weeks rest, so you have to think she’s doing well and that he’s drawing a line through that last. She’s won five of 10 at the trip and was just a head shy of winning the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. A win here would get her back on track and set her up to return to graded company; she’s got five graded placings but no wins.
• One horse who does have a graded stakes win is #11 Dixie Serenade. The late-running daughter of Uptowncharlybrown rallied from last to win the 2018 G3 Victory Ride, but her more recent efforts aren’t at that level. This’ll mark her first since March.

Race 7 — Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes

• Fillies and mares three-years-old and up will go 1 3/8 miles on the turf for a $125,000 purse.
• The obvious horses are, well, the obvious horses in this contest. Let’s toss the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, in which #1 Mrs. Sippy (5-2) ran up the track after hopping at the start, and focus on her two prior races. She won Grade 2 Glens Falls in her first North American start and then ran second in the G1 Flower Bowl; that race marked the sixth consecutive Grade 1 win for victor Sistercharlie, so it’s fair to say that was a big effort, and this one rates a major chance here. And defending champ #5 Gentle Ruler (3-2) has won seven of her last nine and scored in Churchill allowance company. Two back she ran second to Mean Mary, who returned to win the G2 New York by five lengths.
• It looks like trainer Michael Dickinson has #7 Theodora B. (6-1) ready to deliver a big effort. She ran second in this event a year ago, won a salty allowance at Laurel Park last time out, and may be sitting on a good one.

Race 8 — Grade 2 Delaware Handicap

• Fillies and mares three-years-old and up will go 1 1/8 miles on the main track for a $400,000 purse.
• One horse that loves herself this nine-furlong distance is #4 Bellera (7-2). The Todd Pletcher trainee is 3-for-4 going this distance, and the one she lost came when was squeezed at the start and lost her rider. This one’s had two starts since January, and they may have her just where they want her to be. She was a late-running third going seven furlongs at Gulfstream and then a middling seventh in her first turf try. She’s a Grade 3 winner, returns to her best surface and distance, and might be ready to fire big.

WAGERS

• Race 6: 50-cent Pick 4: 1, 3, 10 w/  1, 5, 7 w/ 2, 4 ($9.00)
• Good luck!

LATEST IN HANDICAPPING