Delaware Park 2019 horses to watch: June 3

by | Jun 3, 2019 | Breaking, DE Racing, Delaware, Racing

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

by Frank Vespe

Delaware Park has an eight-race card on tap for Monday, with the finale for Arabians. Some horses to watch:

Race 4 – Starter/optional claiming

  • Fillies and mares three and up who have started for a claiming tag of $8,000 or less since September 1, 2017, or with a claiming tag of $12,500, will go a flat mile on the main track 
  • Talk about a horse in good form: #4 Lonely Drifter (8-1) enters this event on a five-race win streak, four of those since conditioner Anthony Farrior claimed her February 15. All five of those wins have come in 2019, and only two horses in the nation have more than her five wins this year. A versatile sort, she’s demonstrated — just in this win streak — the ability to win on the front end, stalk, or close; and she loves this one-mile trip, with five wins and two thirds from seven attempts. That affinity for the trip may be her ace in the hole, as the morning line favorite, #3 Starship Reina (3-2), has done her best work sprinting, and even the lone mile try on her resume came in a one-turn affair at Gulfstream. Look for Lonely Drifter to be in third early in this one and then try to run down her rivals late. Julio Correa will ride for Farrior.
  • Selections: 4-3-6-1

Race 7 – Maiden claiming

  • Fillies and mares three and up will go 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf at the maiden claiming $40,000 level.
  • Two of these are dropping out of better company but coming off lengthy layoffs. #3 Dynamic Miss (8-5) hasn’t raced since last October at Keeneland, where she was a well-beaten seventh, and here she’s changing barns to that of Richard Hendriks. And #5 Jost Sayin (2-1) is coming off an even longer layoff — since November 2017 (!) — when she was seventh at Gulfstream West. Her debut wasn’t bad at all, a fourth-place finish behind now-Grade 2-placed Razorback Lady, and while her follow-up, and first try on the turf, wasn’t much, she also may have gotten hurt in that race, since she’s been off ever since. She has a half-sib who’s a stake winner on turf, and she has a good long string of works in preparation for this race. Leading rider Carol Cedeno will ride.
  • A runner making her debut here is the four-year-old #7 Farcical (8-1). She’s certainly bred to like this race; by the turf stakes winner Cosmonaut, she has two sibs who are winners on the green. Trainer Ramon Aguayo is winless with seven starts this year, but he is 3-for-12 in recent years with debut runners. One fact to give you pause is that she has just two recorded works, at three and four furlongs, under her belt. Erick Lopez will ride.
  • Selections: 5-4-7-3

Arabian Watch

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

This 6-furlong race for non-winners of two can also be entered for a $15,000 claiming tag. The favorite will likely be RB Hocus Pocus, who won over this surface last time out. Lazur Hess and Colors In Motion, both from Lynn Ashby’s barn, are looking to improve off their first start of the year. A potential longshot is Kissamyasraa, one of the best named horses around. A small horse, he raced well last year on the California Fair circuit. It will depend on how he takes to the Delaware Park surface.