Delaware Park 2019 horses to watch: August 28

Photo by HoofprintsInc.com.

Delaware Park has an eight-race card lined up for Wednesday, August 28. Some horses to watch:

Race 3 — Allowance

Three-year-olds and up will go 1 mile 70 yards on the main track in a first-level allowance.
#4 Saint Alfred (9-5) is one of two horses in this race who’s been making hay against state-breds in recent months. The five-year-old Dublin gelding enters this race having crossed the wire first in four consecutive raes (and five of six and six of eight). Every race on the page — except for his most recent — came against fellow Massachusetts-breds, including wins in three consecutive state-bred stakes at Suffolk Downs. Last time out, he shipped to Delaware to win at this level, only to be DQed because, according to the stewards’ ruling, a racing office error allowed trainer Karl Grusmark to enter the horse in a race in which he was not eligible. Presumably he’s eligible today, and veteran jockey Tammi Piermarini comes in for the lone mount.
The other runner who’s been making short work of state-breds is #6 V. I. P. Ticket (6-1), who’s won five of his last seven. The Jerry O’Dwyer trainee broke his maiden at Laurel Park and has followed that with four additional wins (in five starts) in state-bred company at Charles Town. In each of those five starts, he was odds-on. This one enters off an easy win against CT allowance foes, and in his lone try beyond a mile, he ran a decent third in the Sir Barton at Pimlico. Victor Carrasco will ride.
Selections: 4-3-6-2

Fillies and mares three years old and up that have started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less and which have never won a race other than maiden or claiming, or which have never won three races, will go 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
The horse who best fits this condition is #4 Steelin Magnolias (9-2). The Stacy Hendry trainee only qualifies for the money portion of the condition because she made her debut in $16,000 maiden claiming company, a race which she won for fun. As for the other portion of the condition, she gets in because she has only two wins, from eight career starts; unlike her rivals, she already has won a first-level allowance race. That came in her first start for Hendry, who took the blinkers off for the first time in her career. Hendry then went hunting big game, putting the five-year-old mare in the G3 Robert Dick Memorial at Delaware Park, an 11-furlong test which she led for quite a while before fading to seventh. She makes her first start since that July 6 contest here and will have Jeremy Rose in the irons.
Selections: 4-8-5-2