DELAWARE: ROCKY RUN STAKES POSES QUESTIONS

Bold Leader
Bold Leader broke his maiden at Laurel Park. Photo by The Racing Biz.

No Sabe Nada only cost $2,000 as a yearling. That makes the $98,500 he’s earned to date a pretty nice return on initial investment.

Saturday’s $50,000 Rocky Run Stakes at Delaware Park will pose two new questions for the two-year-old Jersey Town gelding: can he manage two turns and can he handle open stakes company?

The Scott Peck trainee has won two of three, including a score last out in the restricted First State Dash. In that contest, he ran down Rebel Empire, who’d bested him one race earlier. Two of four to run back from the First State Dash have won their follow-ups.

No Sabe Nada has breezed once, a half-mile in 48 seconds Oct. 7, since his last start. While neither he nor his siblings — he has two full sibs — has won going a route of ground, it’s worth noting that Jersey Town’s best runner, Bee Jersey, won the 2018 Grade 1 Met Mile, a one-turn mile contest.

No Sabe Nada is owned by R Racing Stable. He is 9-2 on the morning line and will have Roberto Alvarado, Jr. in the irons for the second consecutive start.

The morning line favorite in the 10-horse field is Husband Material (7-2). The Jimmy Toner trainee won at second asking, taking a local off-the-turf maiden contest at 1 mile 70 yards. He won that day by over 20 lengths, but in so doing he faced just two rivals.

In his follow-up, the American Pharoah colt was a well-beaten eighth in the Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill Downs. Daniel Centeno, who rode Husband Material to his maiden score, has the mount.

No Sabe Nada and Husband Material are two of just three runners here with prior stakes experience. The third is the Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Forty Stripes (5-1). 

The Munnings colt won at first asking and has since run in two stakes. After an up-the-track finish in the grassy Tyro at Monmouth Park, he bounced back to be a good second in the six-furlong Smoke Glacken Stakes, also at Monmouth. Jose Ferrer, who has ridden him in all three starts, will do so once again, his only mount on the card.

Among those with route experience — albeit not of the two-turn variety — is Bold Leader (6-1). The Mike Trombetta trainee won at second asking going a flat mile at Laurel Park Sept. 19. Julian Pimentel will ride a runner getting Lasix on for the first time.

The Rocky Run is carded as the seventh race on the eight-race program and is projected to go off at 4:15 p.m.

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