Once again, it\u2019s the juveniles\u2019 time to shine here at Delaware Park. This week\u2019s feature is the Wasatch Mountain Stakes, carded at 7 \u00bd furlongs on the turf. Despite the heavy rains to the east, the track has come up firm, attracting a field of 8 promising youngsters.
Several in the field are maiden winners. Sano\u2019s<\/I> Withstand<\/B> was a bit green in his debut, but the leggy son of Bahri put it together in his second start, coming from well off the pace to win by 1 \u00bd lengths in Arkansas (77 SF). The additional distance should only be to the colt\u2019s liking, and another step forward makes him a legitimate threat for black type. Jackelfly<\/I> has the unbeaten Woodfly\u2019s World<\/B>. The well-bred son of, naturally, Woodman, made every post a winning one in his debut, covering Saturday\u2019s distance with a 75 SF. The first foal out of Spinfly\u2019s Well, a 13 time stakes winner and grade one placed, he comes by his turf ability naturally, and his combination of speed and pace, particularly in a field where there is only one other front runner, make him very dangerous indeed. Marian1<\/I> has For Four<\/B>, by Pilsudski, who, while a less hyped sire, has thrown a turf runner or two along the way. This colt started out on the main track, but got his victory when switched to the turf. The time was a bit slower than some of the others – 69 SF- but he wasn\u2019t pushed. Will definitely need to improve off that effort, but like the majority of the others in this field, he\u2019s so lightly raced, improvement at this stage of the game is no surprise. Marybarn<\/I>, a familiar sight on the DelPenn circuit, has Barb\u2019s Esteem<\/B>. The illustrious Herbert Ross will ride. The Mark of Esteem colt looked solid last time out when finishing second in a 1 1\/16 mile stakes race (77 SF); I\u2019m not sure if the cutback in distance is really to his favor, but we\u2019ll find out this weekend. Jarrod3’s<\/I> Azroc A Fella<\/B> has raced exclusively at Delaware, and won in his third lifetime start. The SF for the mile was a 71 SF. Like Esteem, I\u2019m not sure the cutback helps, but he\u2019s a nice colt, and capable of pulling off a mild upset at 10\/1. Bbors Baby Tune<\/B> has been knocking on the door, with a 4-1-2-0 record. The bbor3<\/I> trainee also has the highest speed figures in the race (79 SF – 2x). He was second in a nice allowance race at 6 \u00bd furlongs before running evenly in a one mile stakes last time out. The first foal of multiple Grade 1 winner Sky Tune, this Skip Away colt has the ability, and a repeat of these efforts may be enough, barring a major improvement by one of the others. Still, you\u2019d like to see him continuing forward speed-figure wise, rather than levelling off, so early in his career. If he doesn\u2019t do that here, a dirt try may be in order, as Skip Away was dominant on that surface. Nice, nice colt, and it is a bit of a surprise that he\u2019s not the favorite, based on his record.
Of the horses with more than one win under their belt, Johnomally\u2019s<\/I> Gilded Touch<\/B> cuts back in distance after finding 1 1\/16 miles too far. Prior to that, he\u2019d won a mile allowance in his turf debut, earning a 75 SF. Should see an improved performance by returning to sprints, but he\u2019s going to have to progress if he doesn\u2019t want to be overtaken by the newcomers. With seven starts under his belt Zababa<\/B> is the veteran in the group. He\u2019s won two of those starts, both on dirt, including a stakes race. It is sort of puzzling to see him on the turf course again. He is stakes placed on this surface, but his performances have been much better on the main track. The bmr001<\/I> trainee will be up front with Woodfly\u2019s World, but unless he learns to rate, he\u2019ll be tiring in the stretch, and the extra distance will not be to his favor. Good luck to all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First Foals of Top Mares Collide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":438,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/438"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}