Regaled had been knocking on the door of a big win for a long time.

More than a year ago – at 71-1 – she ran a closing third in the Delaware Oaks. Other good tries followed: second a neck in the Heavenly Cause, third in the Allaire Du Pont, second in the Groupie Doll, third in the Grade 2 Locust Grove.

But no wins.

“We were just looking for that breakout win,” admitted Alan Ribble, whose Ribble Farms co-owns the four-year-old Mohaymen filly along with Front Page Equestrian LLC.

Seek no more.

Regaled benefited from a zippy pace that left the leaders enervated, and she exploded through the lane to register a dominating 6 ¼-length win in Sunday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Delaware Handicap.

The win was her second of the year and fourth overall, from 17 starts. She has earned $498,810.

It was also the first win in three starts for her current connections after Legion Bloodstock put together the partnership that bought her for $300,000 at the Inglis Digital USA May sale.

“Legion Bloodstock had looked at her, and we had another horse [half-sister Drexel Hill] with some of the same breeding on the damside, and we were like, ‘Well, let’s go after her,’” Ribble said. “So they put me with [Front Page] and said, ‘Y’all need to buy this horse.’”

Regaled is out of the winning Daaher mare Ascot Walk. Drexel Hill, by Bolt d’Oro, was the winner of the Busher in March and runner-up in this year’s Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.

A $9,500 purchase as a weanling, she had been based at Laurel Park with trainer Sam Davis for owner Brittnee Caballero. They won three races with her and racked up a slew of stakes placings, and after yet another odds-outrunning effort, when third at 30-1 in the Allaire Du Pont Distaff at Pimlico, they sold her.

After the purchase, Whit Beckman took over the training, and she’d run two good races – without winning – for the new connections. But the latter of those – a third-place finish in the Locust Grove – was just two weeks ago.

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“We had always aimed for this race, and [after the Locust Grove] Whit was going, ‘Well, I don’t know if we’ll do the Delaware race unless she just comes out bucking and snorting,’” Ribble laughed. “And literally, she came around the corner and was bucking and snorting like she still wanted to go another time around.”

Regaled certainly wasn’t overlooked by bettors in the DelCap – she went off at 3.20-1 – but they mostly had eyes for Grade 3 Royal Delta winner Dazzling Move (4-5) and the Grade 1-placed Majestic Oops (2.10-1).

It was those two – mostly Dazzling Move, under jockey Micah Husbands — who set the DelCap tempo. Dazzling Move jetted out to a 2 1/2-length lead in the opening quarter-mile while throwing down a grueling 22.83-second opener. Majestic Oops, with Sonny Leon, who earlier won the Wilmington Stakes aboard Silver Slugger, was the nearest pursuer and a length ahead of her rivals.

Husbands tried, with incomplete success, to slow things down, the half going in 47.02 seconds and three quarters in 1:10.99. Dazzling Move maintained a three-length lead at that point, and Majestic Oops remained her nearest pursuer.

But the lead duo was about to hit the wall, while Regaled, last for the opening half, had just begun to take an interest.

“I was actually running out of goggles on the backside because the track was muddy and sticky,” said winning rider Joseph Ramos. “Everything was sticking to them, but I was thinking I need to have at least one left to bring this home.”

Still last entering the turn, Ramos put Regaled to the attack rounding the turn, and though she still had work to do as the field turned for home, Regaled was in full flight with only tiring runners in front of her. Ramos knifed her between rivals to the lead, and she drew off eagerly to win.

“At the three-eighths I tapped her and she jumped forward,” Ramos said. “At that point, I knew I had them. I kept pushing and going and she responded. In the stretch she was strong, and I am super proud of the way she ran today.” 

Regaled completed the nine furlongs on a muddy, sealed main track in 1:50.94. Runaway Diva, a 14-1 outsider, was second, while Dazzling Move held third, 4 ½ lengths farther back. Majestic Oops and Queen of Missoula, off at 25-1 in her first start since last year’s DelCap, completed the order of finish. Gun Song and Margie’s Intention were scratched.

Regaled paid $8.40 to win and topped an exacta that returned $32.10 for a one-dollar wager.

If Ramos, aboard for the third time today, was proud of Regaled’s run today, he might be prouder yet of where she runs to next. The win here provides the connections $30,000 towards entry fees for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Of course, the owner pointed out, trainer Whit Beckman will have something to say about that, as well. But she sure looked the part today.

“Breeders’ Cup is where we, as owners, were wanting to go,” Ribble said. “That’s been my ultimate goal: to get a Breeders’ Cup horse. It looks like she belongs.”