DELAWARE PARK PICKS AND HORSES TO WATCH: OCT. 14

Elate
Elate was much the best in the 2019 Delaware Handicap. Photo by Allison Janezic.

Delaware Park has an 8-race card on tap for this Wednesday. Post time for the opener is 1:15 p.m., and we’ve got Delaware Park picks.

How’d we do last time at Delaware Park?

RACE NUMBERCONTENDERSCOMMENTS
Race 24-1-8-6Maiden two-year-olds at the $40k claiming level in this one, and we’ll take a look at #4 Hope Has a Name (5-2) on top. The Hugh McMahon trainee was a well-beaten third on debut, while well clear of the rest, and that contest might have been one of the better baby races of the meet: winner Street Lute came back to win the Small Wonder by five lengths and runner-up Spirited Beauty also graduated in her follow-up… Young sire Not This Time is off to a fast start, with eight first-out winners from 31 runners to date, and Ham Smith will unveil #1 Mikey’s Jewel (8-1); she’s the first foal out of an Elusive Quality mare who won four times, mostly at the allowance level… Gerald Bennett has a pair in here, and we’ll take #8 Successful Legacy (8-1), who seems to have outworked her stablemate the other day… #6 Vegas Weekend (8-1) was well-beaten on debut at MTH and drops into the claiming ranks today for trainer Kelly Breen…
Race 45-10-1-4Breen also brings sophomore filly #5 Persisto (4-1) along for the ride. Draw a line through that last on the grass, and you have a horse who looks solid in here. In her last dirt try, she was a good second, and five of six to run back have finished in the money, including two next-out winners. She’s probably controlling speed here and gets leading rider Cedeno in the irons… #10 Dance and Dance (10-1) appears to be getting good now for trainer Claudio Gonzalez; she was a mile the best last time with a four-wide journey throughout, and she inhaled the leaders at will. The runner-up, Breviary, had already won two allowance races… #1 Global Ambition (5-1) has been competitive at this level a couple of times… #4 Pretti Xtreme (6-1) will have to step it up but has been moving in the right direction…
Race 53-1-5-2We’ll give another crack here to #3 McCain (4-1). This one got cooked as part of a fast pace last time but ran very well two back when reserved early. The winner that day, Tatweej, is a $2.5 million Tapit colt who’s now won three straight, and runner-up El Samuro now has won two straight… Good try last time for #1 Ananroad (2-1), who will likely look to take them all the way when breaking from the inside stall… #5 Super Dancer (6-1) has been on the improve, will need another move forward today… #2 Dance for Gold (3-1) stretches out to two turns for the first time after a good second while sprinting last time…

LATEST HANDICAPPING