Delaware Park 2019 horses to watch: May 25

by | May 24, 2019 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

Off at Delaware Park. Photo © www.HoofprintsInc.com.

by Frank Vespe

 

Delaware Park presents a good Saturday card, kicking off with a maiden special weight, including some allowance tests, and concluding with an Arabian allowance. Some horses to watch:

 

Race 1 – Maiden special weight 

 

  • Fillies and mares three and up will go 6 furlongs on the main track in a maiden special weight test.
  • Just the other day, New York-based trainer Christophe Clement sent out a first-time starter in a two-year-old maiden event at Delaware to victory. He’s right back at you in this spot for older runners with #4 So Cunning (3-2)… and… what?!? 3-2 on a first-timer?!?! The daughter of Blame is a full sister to six-time winner So Innocent. She’s been working well enough down at Payson Park towards her debut here and will have Alex Cintron in the irons. It’s not a great sign that Clement ships here, rather than running at home, but the next scheduled dirt sprint for maiden special runners up there isn’t for almost two weeks. The odds certainly are unappealing, but she catches a modest enough field here.
  • Selections: 4-6-5-3

 

 

 

Race 7 – Allowance

 

  • Three-year-olds and up will go 1 mile 70 yards on the turf in a first-level allowance.
  • Pretty interesting group set to contest this race on the first day of grass racing in Delaware. We gotta admit: we’re partial to horses that break their maidens first time out, and such is the case with #6 Mountain Holiday (10-1). This Keith Nations trainee won narrowly at first asking at Tampa Bay, which, despite the atrocious purses, is a tough place to win races. It was a good way to kick off his career, particularly since he was going a route of ground on debut, and he shows up here for his second career start. His three local works since that race seem to indicate that he’s ready to run a good one, and Daniel Centeno in the irons won’t hurt. He’ll need to move forward, but in just his second career start, he figures to be able to do just that.
  • Selections: 6-1-4-3

Arabian Watch

Thanks to Stephanie Ruff and Arabian Finish Line for giving us insights to the Arabian racing at Delaware Park.

The Arabian allowance race today has a powerhouse favorite. Easter Man is already two-for-two, both stakes including a grade 1, and is poised to win his third race of the season with jockey Carol Cedeno. This is a quality field, including Thess Is Awesome and RB Texas Hold Em, who is a grade 3 winner this year. A longshot option is Uptown Arabian’s entry of Uptown Flying Flynn and Uptown Cruise Director.