In his first career outing, Cold Feet posted a 9-length triumph in a 5 ½-furlong $25,000 maiden claiming race at Delaware Park on July 27. The Pennsylvania-bred son of Frosted is trained by Cathal Lynch, who is currently second in the Delaware Park trainer standings with 22 wins. His record with 2-year-olds at the meet is six winners from 15 starters.

Training for owners like Gregory and Caroline Bentley of Runnymoore Racing is a significant reason for his success, according to Lynch, and the Delaware Certified Thoroughbred Program encourages the whole team to stay close to home.  

“Just last year I started training for Caroline and Greg,” said trainer Cathal Lynch, who is in his second full season stabled at Delaware Park. “I got a couple of babies for them this year and going forward into next year, we will have about 14 Delaware Certified babies. The Delaware Certified program is a big deal because we all live close and Delaware Park is basically our local track. I live in Newark, Delaware, and I also have horses at Fair Hill. The extra bonus money helps keep us at home, not to mention the whole program really helps the local economy.”

Last year, Lynch finished second in the Delaware Park standings.

“My success is because of the team, not just the owners, and we are blessed to have the best, but the assistants, the grooms and the people who work at Delaware Park and Fair Hill,” he said. “I am just the guy who puts it all together, but without the people and the program, none of this success would be possible.”

Lynch likes how Cold Feet has progressed since his maiden victory.

“This is the next step for him,” said Lynch. “He was impressive in his debut, and he has been doing well since, so the Dover is the next test.”

Lewis Mathews Jr.’s Mean Tweets will be looking to continue his steady improvement. In his career debut, the Kentucky-bred ran second to Cold Feet on July 27. The son of American Freedom trained by Chelsey Moysey followed with a length score in a six furlong $25,000 maiden claiming race on August 17.

“He was a little green in his first start and he probably needed that start to figure some things out,” Moysey said. “He is the kind of horse who needs to do it, to learn it and we also knew he would probably like to go a little longer, so we were extremely encouraged when he ran second. It made us very confident about his second start. We wish the distance of the Dover was a little bit longer because he did a really nice job of running down the leader in his last start, but we are going to take a shot.”

This is the first Delaware Certified thoroughbred that Moysey has entered into the program.

“This is my first horse we put into the Delaware Certified program, and we kind of did it learning about the program last year,” said Moysey, who is in her second season stabling at Delaware Park. “We are pretty excited about it. I have had others who were Delaware Certified, but this is the first one we chose to do ourselves. Delaware is probably going to be our summer home for a while. I am very happy with Delaware, so we are going to be getting more involved in the program. That is the plan and we got a bunch more we are planning to put into the program.”