Otter Bend’s Gufo tops the $125,000 Grade III Kent Stakes at Delaware Park this Saturday. The mile-and-an-eighth grass affair has attracted a field of eight 3-year-olds. The Kent has been carded as the ninth race with an approximate post time of 5:15 p.m.
Gufo (5-2 on the morning line) will try to extend his current winning streak to four. The Kentucky-bred trained by Christophe Clement, started his career with a third in an Aqueduct turf maiden on November 17. The son of Declaration of War followed with three successive turf victories all at Gulfstream Park. On December 29, he broke his maiden by a nose going a mile and a sixteenth. He followed with a half-length triumph in a mile and an eighth allowance on March 27. In his most recent, he won the mile and a sixteenth $75,000 English Channel Stakes on May 2. He has career earnings of $102,510.
Trevor McCarthy has the mount. McCarthy was aboard Eons last summer when that runner rallied late to win this event.
Trainer H. Graham Motion has entered Alex Campbell Jr.’s Bye Bye Melvin (6-1) who has a career record of two wins and a third from six starts with earnings of $32,840. In his most recent, the son of Uncle Mo was unplaced in the mile and a sixteenth $400,000 Grade II Tampa Bay Derby on the main track on March 7. His previous two efforts, on the grass at Tampa Bay Downs, tell the real story of the Kentucky-bred. On December 7, he broke his maiden going a mile and a sixteenth by 8 ¼-lengths and then he followed with a ¾-length score in a one mile allowance on January 8.
Feargal Lynch will ride the son of Uncle Mo, a homebred for owner Alex Campbell.
“He had two solid turf victories at Tampa over the winter,” said trainer H. Graham Motion. “But, we thought he breezed really well on the dirt, so we decided to run him in the Tampa Bay Derby. After the Tampa Bay Derby, we are excited to get him back on the grass. He is a half-brother to Mean Mary, so we think he has a bright future on the grass.”
Mean Mary has a career turf record of five wins and a second including victories this year in the Grade 3 La Prevoyante and Grade 3 Orchid at Gulfstream Park and Grade 2 New York at Belmont Park.
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