Delaware Park Racing Notebook 2018: Vol. 14
Elate won the G2 Delaware Handicap. Photo by Allison Janezic.
by Doug McCoy
Every week during the Delaware Park racing season, The Racing Biz will publish The Delaware Park Racing Notebook. This page is designed to give helpful information to both horseplayers and horsemen about the racing picture at Delaware Park from the past week.
In the notebook, you’ll find:
- “Horses to watch” section highlighting both horses who have shown promise those who may have had poor “trips” in their last starts.
- “Clocker’s Corner” where track clockers will point out horses who have worked in noteworthy fashion during the past week.
- Track tendencies or biases during the week’s races. While it would be great if every race track was completely fair and even and an equal number of speed horses, stalkers, and closers won each day, observant handicappers know this just isn’t the case. Every track’s tendencies and biases (favored styles) change and vary, often from one racing program to the next due to any number of factors, most notably weather. While these changes are often minor, there are also days where a certain type of horse (like a speed horse) has a decided advantage, and there also days where one portion of the racing strip is a better spot to race over (like the inside) than another.
- Leading trainers and jocks and who’s been hot during the last week.
HORSES TO WATCH
- DAKOTA READY – Keith Nations first-time starter broke slowly in his debut but made up ground well through a :24.2 middle quarter and was gaining down the lane in a decent maiden turf route.
- BEACOS DISCO PANTS – Was knocked sideways leaving the gate, almost unseating rider, but recovered to make a sweeping middle move and finished well late. A drop to maiden $25,000 level would make this one tough.
- FACTOR IT IN – Broke slowly in the Strike Your Colors Stakes, then made a wide middle move before finishing well late. A better start and this one contends.
- MO MADDNES – Checked up and rider lost balance into first turn in first start with winners but recovered to make a decent middle move and was gaining late.
CLOCKERS’ CORNER
- TBTWELVE – This unraced Trappe Shot 2-year-old outworked two other juveniles from the gate, posting a solid :48.80 half mile clocking on 09/01. Doesn’t look like he’s far from a race.
- FIRE SPARX – Pennsylvania-bred drilled four furlongs in :48.40 for trainer Hugh McMahon on 09/01 and might be worth watching for in a state-bred race.
- PUDDING – This Gerald Bennett runner was best of 25 horses working four furlongs on 09/03 with a solid :49.00 move.
- POSITIVIST – Unraced Quality Road 3-year-old turned in a good five-furlong move of 1:01.80 on 09/03 and looks close to making his debut.
JOCKEYS AND TRAINERS
Leading jockey Carol Cedeno just keeps winning. The defending champion booted home six winners from 19 mounts while finishing second on four other starters. Jevian Toledo won with all three mounts he accepted last week while Keiber Coa and Brian Pedroza also racked up three winners.
Cedeno has now won 68 races this season, 21 more than Angel Suarez. Coa ranks third with 27 wins and Daniel Centeno is currently fourth with 23 tallies. Johan Rosado continues to lead the local apprentices with 15 winners.
It is Centeno, who is winning with over 30 percent of his starters and has provided bettors a positive wagering return on investment, who leads our jockey rankings (at right), which combine wins, win percentage, earnings per start, and $2 wagering return on investment into a single metric. He has a narrow advantage over Cedeno in our rankings, while Jevian Toledo and Feargal Lynch are in a virtual dead-heat behind them. Angel Suarez is fifth.
RANK | JOCKEY | TOTAL POINTS | WINS | WIN PCT. | EARNINGS/START | $2 ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Centeno Daniel | 300.23 | 23 | 30.67% | $7,070.87 | $2.16 |
| 2 | Cedeno Carol | 284.65 | 68 | 23.78% | $4,025.28 | $1.58 |
| 3 | Toledo Jevian | 260.30 | 7 | 23.33% | $5,819.67 | $2.82 |
| 4 | Lynch Feargal | 260.11 | 11 | 25.00% | $7,873.45 | $1.76 |
| 5 | Suarez Angel | 222.80 | 47 | 19.58% | $3,081.44 | $1.43 |
| 6 | Rosado Johan | 210.30 | 15 | 20.83% | $3,608.75 | $2.10 |
| 7 | Torres Jomar | 209.32 | 10 | 18.87% | $6,570.04 | $1.40 |
| 8 | Pedroza Brian | 202.88 | 12 | 23.53% | $4,355.59 | $1.50 |
| 9 | Cintron Alex | 200.72 | 18 | 17.14% | $4,683.50 | $1.66 |
| 10 | Pino Mario G | 194.11 | 14 | 16.47% | $4,910.29 | $1.62 |
| 11 | Marin Augusto A | 191.54 | 18 | 17.82% | $3,275.89 | $1.84 |
| 12 | Hamilton Weston | 174.28 | 7 | 17.50% | $4,397.48 | $1.44 |
| 13 | Ortega Jomar | 169.55 | 12 | 16.44% | $2,097.81 | $2.02 |
| 14 | Vargas Jr Jorge A | 159.36 | 7 | 13.21% | $4,827.64 | $1.26 |
| 15 | Coa Keiber J | 155.06 | 27 | 11.69% | $2,462.04 | $1.30 |
| 16 | Swan Kirsten | 154.31 | 4 | 20.00% | $3,145.00 | $1.22 |
| 17 | Garcia Jose Angel | 150.82 | 21 | 13.04% | $2,473.02 | $1.30 |
| 18 | Panell Dyn | 140.82 | 7 | 12.73% | $2,430.36 | $1.64 |
| 19 | Uske Shannon | 134.57 | 12 | 12.37% | $1,785.88 | $1.52 |
| 20 | Mccarthy Trevor | 132.92 | 12 | 12.24% | $3,586.58 | $0.84 |
| 21 | Paz Robert | 131.27 | 6 | 9.52% | $1,471.67 | $2.05 |
| 22 | Acosta J D | 122.33 | 3 | 10.34% | $3,445.52 | $1.14 |
| 23 | Montanez Rosario | 118.39 | 3 | 12.50% | $2,470.21 | $1.18 |
| 24 | Rose Jeremy | 116.80 | 4 | 8.33% | $3,299.21 | $1.18 |
| 25 | Betancourt Jose R | 113.29 | 8 | 7.77% | $1,292.59 | $1.69 |
| 26 | Powell Ryan | 109.48 | 3 | 8.33% | $1,733.81 | $1.58 |
| 27 | Rodriguez Pablo | 88.31 | 9 | 8.91% | $1,672.52 | $0.70 |
| 28 | Lara Ezequiel | 72.39 | 3 | 4.84% | $1,353.95 | $0.99 |
| 29 | Quiles Antonio | 72.36 | 5 | 7.58% | $1,670.52 | $0.54 |
| 30 | Rivera Gregorio A | 72.35 | 2 | 10.00% | $1,099.00 | $0.64 |
RANK | TRAINER | TOTAL POINTS | WINS | WIN PCT. | EARNINGS/START | $2 ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gonzalez Claudio A | 334.47 | 12 | 33.33% | $10,148 | $2.30 |
| 2 | Delacour Arnaud | 303.48 | 11 | 31.43% | $7,302 | $2.48 |
| 3 | Ness Jamie | 266.68 | 25 | 24.75% | $4,191 | $1.36 |
| 4 | Pecoraro Anthony | 260.54 | 15 | 27.27% | $5,410 | $1.74 |
| 5 | Capuano Gary | 250.25 | 8 | 23.53% | $7,660 | $1.92 |
| 6 | Torrez Jerenesto | 249.95 | 17 | 30.91% | $3,790 | $1.38 |
| 7 | Ashby Lynn A | 239.70 | 10 | 25.00% | $6,999 | $1.48 |
| 8 | Motion H Graham | 235.82 | 9 | 21.43% | $7,192 | $1.72 |
| 9 | Carrasco Jr Victor | 235.53 | 12 | 25.00% | $3,332 | $2.12 |
| 10 | Gorham Michael E | 221.86 | 11 | 18.03% | $4,090 | $2.22 |
| 11 | Powell Scott | 221.10 | 8 | 21.05% | $2,633 | $2.66 |
| 12 | Ritchey Timothy F | 207.11 | 7 | 25.93% | $4,866 | $1.42 |
| 13 | Wasiluk Jr Peter | 201.14 | 6 | 17.14% | $2,609 | $2.66 |
| 14 | Bennett Gerald S | 191.66 | 14 | 16.67% | $3,504 | $1.36 |
| 15 | McMahon Hugh I | 182.14 | 5 | 18.52% | $3,262 | $1.98 |
| 16 | Simoff Andrew L | 181.95 | 8 | 22.86% | $3,299 | $1.30 |
| 17 | Lake Scott A | 181.84 | 16 | 16.33% | $2,410 | $1.20 |
| 18 | Rubley Kelly | 177.44 | 5 | 18.52% | $4,388 | $1.56 |
| 19 | Neilson Wallace C | 169.41 | 7 | 17.07% | $1,688 | $1.96 |
| 20 | Rigattieri John | 157.82 | 6 | 18.18% | $3,543 | $1.18 |
| 21 | Proctor Thomas F | 147.30 | 5 | 14.71% | $5,389 | $0.80 |
| 22 | Potts Wayne | 137.90 | 11 | 13.25% | $2,519 | $0.78 |
| 23 | Cronk Samuel F | 137.35 | 4 | 11.11% | $2,141 | $1.78 |
| 24 | Galvan Baltazar | 135.31 | 7 | 9.86% | $2,395 | $1.44 |
| 25 | Hobson Simon | 129.15 | 5 | 12.20% | $1,718 | $1.48 |
| 26 | Cruz Jesus | 127.75 | 6 | 12.77% | $2,522 | $1.08 |
| 27 | Rodriguez Jose S | 124.83 | 3 | 11.11% | $1,886 | $1.62 |
| 28 | Raymond Robert A | 124.62 | 4 | 11.76% | $2,100 | $1.40 |
| 29 | Diaz Jorge | 101.24 | 4 | 9.30% | $1,316 | $1.18 |
| 30 | Stauffer Sr Arthur F | 90.77 | 3 | 5.00% | $1,206 | $1.38 |
| 31 | Sienkewicz William M | 88.89 | 3 | 11.11% | $1,826 | $0.68 |
| 32 | Gaffney Hubert | 82.33 | 3 | 7.14% | $1,453 | $0.92 |
| 33 | Powell Mark K | 80.39 | 5 | 7.69% | $1,193 | $0.68 |
| 34 | Epley Jr Steve | 72.05 | 2 | 6.45% | $2,475 | $0.54 |
Trainer Jamie Ness’s barn is red hot right now. Ness tied for leading trainer at Delaware Park with Scott Lake last season, and it looks like he’s not going to let it get that close this year. Ness sent out five runners last week and won with four of them to raise his wins for the meeting to 25, seven more than Arabian trainer Jerenesto Torrez and nine more than his closest thoroughbred rival, Lake. Anthony Pecoraro and Gerald Bennett rank third and fourth among the thoroughbred conditioners with 16 and 15 wins respectively.
Arabian trainer Jerenesto Torrez had three wins and as many seconds from six starters, while Arnaud Delacour saddled three winners from five starters. Delacour is a gimmick player’s dream. His horses are winning at a 30% clip this meeting and 60% of his starters have finished in the money. Only Ness (63%) and Claudio Gonzalez (72%) have a higher in-the-money percentage.
Gonzalez leads our trainer rankings (at left), which combine wins, win percentage, earnings per start, and $2 wagering return on investment into a single metric. He has won with a third of his horses at the meet and has the top earnings-per-start of any trainer who has made at least 25 starts. He also has a positve ROI. Delacour, Ness, Anthony Pecoraro, and Gary Capuano round out the top five.
TRACK BIAS REPORT
Power of Snunner won the 2017 Obeah at Delaware Park. Photo by Kathleen O’Leary.
- 08/29 – The racing surface looked tighter and quicker when racing returned on Wednesday with speed holding up very well. Front runners and horses racing close to the lead had the most success.
- 08/30 – The speed bias continued Thursday as here again, horses with strong early and tactical speed had the advantage. Late runners did close better in deep stretch, but most of the time their late rallies were too late.
- 09/01 – Heavy rains in the area left the strip sloppy with a good bit of standing water, and jockeys had to look for the best part of the strip for the best footing as their races progressed.
- 09/03 – The strip dried on Sunday and was quick and favoring those with early speed again on the Monday card.
