DelCap day a card full of questions
No free squares in late Pick 5
Guest Author
October 2, 2026
If you’re looking for a comfortable place to plant a single on Delaware Handicap day, Stan Salter has some advice: keep looking.
Four stakes anchor Delaware Park’s Oct. 3 card, and all four land in a late Pick 5 with a $75,000 guaranteed pool and 15 percent takeout. There’s a defending champion, a recent Grade 1 winner, a bargain horse closing in on $1 million, and two fields of juveniles still figuring out who they are.
Plenty, in other words, to puzzle over.
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“It might not be for the faint-hearted,” said Salter, Delaware Park’s racing analyst, during a conversation on the Midlantic Racing Today podcast. “You might have to partner up with a couple of friends.”
The sequence begins with the $200,000 Battery Park in race six and ends with the $500,000 Grade 3 Delaware Handicap in race 10. In between come the $150,000 Rocky Run, the $150,000 White Clay Creek, and a turf allowance that offers no obvious breather.
Start with the big one. Regaled won last year’s Del Cap by 6¼ lengths before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. A repeat would make her just the eighth horse to double up on DelCap wins; that’s not many in 89 editions.
“There’s been a lot more that have tried to do it that haven’t accomplished it,” said racing information coordinator Chris Sobocinski.
Regaled’s credentials are easy to appreciate. Her current form takes more interpretation: she hasn’t raced since finishing second in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis June 27. Salter expects Social Fortress and Eunomia to provide enough early activity for the closer in the 1⅛-mile race. Whether she returns ready to deliver is the bigger question.
Eunomia, meanwhile, arrives off a win in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar. Sobocinski made her the slight morning-line favorite at 3-1, with Regaled at 7-2. But Salter isn’t ready to hand the race to the California shipper.
“I don’t think there’s any single in this race,” he said.
Track conditions could shift the balance. Regaled has two wins and three seconds from five starts on wet tracks, including last year’s Del Cap. Eunomia has finished out of the money in both of her wet-track attempts.
Behind those two, Chasten, Nerazurri, and Margie’s Intention give bettors reasons to expand their tickets. Chasten won Delaware’s Obeah by 6¼ lengths in June before finishing sixth behind Eunomia at Del Mar. Nerazurri and Margie’s Intention exit the Grade 1 Personal Ensign, where they finished third and fifth, respectively.
The trick is deciding which version of each horse shows up.
“They’re consistent enough to want to make you want to play them, but they’re inconsistent enough to kind of make you a little bit hesitant,” Sobocinski said.
That leaves players hunting for savings elsewhere. Salter’s most likely spot is the six-horse Battery Park, also at 1⅛ miles.
Barbadian Runner, the 3-2 morning-line favorite, has earned $980,250 after costing just $5,000 as a yearling. The Henry Walters trainee finished fifth after a traffic-filled trip in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic, snapping a streak of 12 consecutive exacta finishes.
But don’t toss defending Battery Park winner Cooke Creek. He is 3-for-3 at Delaware, won last year’s renewal on the lead, and returned from a summer break with a solid third at Saratoga. At 8-1 on the morning line, he offers a different proposition from the favorite. Bill Mott’s Bendoog and graded stakes winner Hill Road add depth.
Salter thinks players might get away with using just two horses there.
“But the other races look like spread races,” he said.
The juveniles explain why.
In the one-mile Rocky Run, Full Access brings a rallying debut win at Ellis Park. Earth Song comes off an 11-length Monmouth maiden victory, while Brad Cox’s Hammerin Henry graduated against New York-breds at Saratoga.
Sobocinski’s slight 5-2 favorite, though, is Gary Capuano’s Westbound Cat. He already owns a Delaware maiden win at the distance and returns to two turns after finishing fourth in the First State Dash.
“I would definitely expect the horse to improve,” Sobocinski said.
The one-mile White Clay Creek asks a different question: how forgiving are you feeling?
Life Changing and Girvy Girl looked terrific winning their maidens, then finished far back in the Grade 1 Spinaway. Salter would rather look elsewhere than assume either filly immediately rediscovers her best form.
“I usually try to go against those kind of horses,” he said.
Alternatives include Spectacular Sam, still a maiden but second in the Sorority at a mile, and Capuano’s stakes-winning pair, Martiniwithatwist and Whitten Way. Martiniwithatwist has won two straight, most recently the Small Wonder; Whitten Way won the Blue Hen before finishing fourth in the Small Wonder. Both are cross-entered at Laurel Park but are expected to remain at Delaware.
“The one thing I kept going back to is there are only two horses in this race that have won stakes races,” Sobocinski said.
Both come from Capuano’s barn. Both earned those wins at Delaware.
On a card full of questions, that’s at least a useful place to start.
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