Delaware Park 2019 horses to watch: August 3

Photo by HoofprintsInc.com.

Delaware Park has an eight-race card lined up today. Some horses to watch:

Race 1 – Maiden special weight

Maiden fillies and mares three years old and up will go 6 furlongs on the main track.
Trainer John Smith will send out his first starter since 2012 in this contest with #3 Ruby True. The trainer’s career, which includes a graded stakes placing, has seen him win 61 races with purse earnings of more than $630,000, his best years having come in 1997 and 1998, when he topped $100,000 in purse earnings each year. For all that, this is a pretty decently bred horse — by promising sire Jimmy Creed out of a mare who’s produced three winners to date. The horse has been working only sluggishly, though, and Smith will leg up rider Jorge Calderon, who’s 1-for-50 this year.
The favorite here is #5 Forbidden Frolic (6-5). Trainer Steve Asmussen dropped a claim slip on this one last time out for $30,000 for owner David Ingordo, and you have to figure that claim was about breeding more than racing; this Verrazano filly cost $90,000 at auction and is out of the productive Premiership mare Flashy Frolic, who’s produced eight winners, including three stakes winners, two of which won graded events. If our surmise is right, then breaking her maiden would be helpful to her value and that of her offspring, and for Asmussen, who has a string at Belmont, Delaware is an easier spot to do that than Saratoga would be.
Selections: 1-5-6-4