Trio hopes home field helps in Delaware Oaks
Group includes morning line fave, longshot, mid-priced runner
Frank Vespe
June 11, 2026
Saturday’s Grade 3 Delaware Oaks will test the proposition that home field advantage matters in racing. Three of the Oaks contenders have been training at Delaware Park, including 2-1 morning line favorite Luv Your Neighbor.
For trainer Michael Stidham, that familiarity is no small thing. He believes having his filly over the track could provide an edge after a spring spent battling some of the nation’s best three-year-old fillies.
“Delaware can be a funny racetrack, a little bit, you know, tough track to get over sometimes,” Stidham said. “We feel like training on it was a little bit of an advantage.”
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Luv Your Neighbor certainly has the résumé to justify favoritism. The Lael Stables runner has finished second or third in five consecutive stakes races, including the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra, Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, and most recently the Grade 2 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs.
Rather than tackle the Kentucky Oaks at a mile and an eighth, Stidham opted for the seven-furlong Eight Belles, believing the added distance might have stretched her limitations.
“We feel like the mile and an eighth was stretching her a little further than probably her best,” he explained. “I’m not sure if it’s the competition that’s stopping her from winning, or whether a little bit of distance.”
Still, after five runner-up finishes in eight starts, the veteran horseman admitted, “I hate to lose, so every time she finishes second it’s hard to take.”
If the favorite is looking to turn the tables, another local trainee, Jumping the Gun, enters off perhaps the best race of her career. The Andrew Simoff trainee was second in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan after making a bold move nearing the quarter-pole and has won three of four starts over the Delaware oval. Her seven-race record includes six finishes in the top two, and her local experience could prove valuable.
Simoff believes the Delaware Oaks may have come up a bit tougher than he’d hoped because several of the division’s stars opted for other targets. Two of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks also-rans, Dazzling Dame and Pashmina, are here.
“The top ones went to the Acorn, but the middle-of-the-road ones, they didn’t go in there,” he said. “The timing is just better for this race for a lot of those guys.”
Even so, he knows his filly, 8-1 on the morning line and reunited with jockey Julio Hernandez, will need another forward move.
“She’s definitely got to run probably a career best to win it,” Simoff said.
He took encouragement from her third-place finish in the Weber City Miss, noting that both horses who finished ahead of her came back to finish behind her in the Black-Eyed Susan.
“Coming out of the Weber City Miss, the horses that beat her all finished behind her, so obviously she ran a lot better,” he said.
The trainer also has been pondering tactics. Wide trips have compromised Jumping the Gun in recent outings, but this time, she’s drawn on the rail.
“If I get inside position, I would like that better,” Simoff said. “She’s been kind of hung a little bit on both turns. Maybe a sharp break, get over to the fence and save ground around that first turn, and then we have a legitimate chance. If we get beat, we get beat.”
Michael Gorham’s Miss Fulton Gal is the third member of the home-track contingent and another filly coming out of the Black-Eyed Susan. The Beyond the Wire Stakes winner finished fifth that day, but Gorham believes the effort was better than it looks on paper.
“Johnny Velazquez said he got in a little jam about the quarter pole,” Gorham said. “He thought she could have been third if he had a clear trip. Still, she finished and ran on at the end, which is a positive sign.”
The trainer reported that his filly has thrived since that start.
“She came out of the Black-Eyed Susan in great shape, no issues,” he said. “She worked great, worked lights out, galloped out real strong. So she’s telling us she’s ready to run.”
Like Jumping the Gun, Miss Fulton Gal has been stabled and training at Delaware Park, something Gorham hopes can narrow the gap against more heralded rivals. She is 20-1 on the morning line and will have Raul Mena in the irons.
“We’re both training on the track, too, so that might be a little advantage for both of us,” he said.
Gorham is realistic about the challenge. Miss Fulton Gal has danced plenty of dances this season, and the Delaware Oaks represents another ambitious spot for a filly who has already earned black type.
“We all understand that we’re taking shots in these big races,” he said. “She seems to be improving all the time, which is a positive. If she gets a good trip, even if she runs one-two-three, I think it’s a good effort and gives her some more black type, and we can move forward from there.”
The local trio will not have the race to themselves. Kentucky Oaks starter Dazzling Dame, Brad Cox-trained Sneaky Good, and Grade 3 Gazelle runner-up Pashmina all bring strong credentials.
But in a race where surface familiarity could make the difference, Delaware Park’s home team will have every opportunity to prove that local knowledge still counts.
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