Delaware Park picks and horses to watch: August 27

Photo by HoofprintsInc.com.

We’ve got Delaware Park picks and horses to watch for Thursday, August 27. The card features nine races with the finale for Arabians

Race 3 — Claiming

Three-year-olds and up at the $8,000 claiming level will go about 5 furlongs on the turf.
Hey, don’t blame us if they take it off the turf! #1 Apache Brave (5-2) takes an appropriate drop in his first try in the Ness barn after keeping better company than this in Florida. If he maintains form in his first local try, he should be more than competitive here… Inclined to give another crack to #3 Boppin Anda Weaving (10-1). The Gorham trainee’s recent efforts aren’t great, but the 10-time winner catches a bit of an easier group here and has some efforts good enough to win here on the resume… #6 Call Will (9-2) ran a clunker in the last turf try of his ’19 campaign and has not raced since Decenber. But he was in good form through the summer and early fall last year, has shown the ability to run well fresh, and can handle these… Another taking a drop is #9 What’s Inside (7-2), who is not far removed from efforts that win in this spot.

Fillies and mares three and up will go 5 1/2 furlongs on the main track.
There looks to be a ton of early zip in this race, which could mean good news for #7 Deco Strong (3-1). The Flint Stites trainee might get the best trip of the group while breaking from the outside; she took five cracks to break her maiden and has been second and third in two tries versus winners… Big effort last time out on the front end by #6 Map of America (2-1), who drew away to graduate. We’re inclined to hold slightly against her that while she went pretty fast early, the track was holding speed that day, especially in shorter sprints, though do note the runner-up came back to win. This one has a couple interesting past performance notes; first, the running line for her debut is wrong. She broke very slowly, which cost her all chance, made a good middle move, and then emptied out a bit late. She wasn’t third early; she was sixth, and she wasn’t anything close to two lengths off the lead. It was a perfectly promising debut. In her second start, she got loose pre-race, which probably led directly to her being pulled up… Another who might be able to rate back a bit in here is #5 Be Present (4-1), who did so when graduating. Her two back second might be better than it looks; the winner came right back to win an allowance at Saratoga.

WAGERS