Weekend Results
Island Sand paid $13.20 to win in the Delaware Handicap, despite having Jerry Bailey aboard (Blood-Horse). I’m not usually an advocate of betting jockeys, but Bailey has been unquestionably hot in filly and mare stakes races this month. On Saturday, he won the Virginia Oaks with My Typhoon (Daily Press). A week ago, it was the Princess Rooney with Madcap Escapade. And before that, it was Splendid Blended in the Vanity Handicap, Wend in the New York Handicap, and Stellar Jayne in the (ungraded) Misty Galore Stakes. That’s quite a record.
The Delaware Handicap was Bailey’s first ride on Island Sand. He picked up the mount only 10 days ago, when his agent Ron Anderson called trainer Larry Jones after hearing that regular jockey Terry Thompson was off with a pelvic injury. Bailey said that Jones told him the filly was a “grinder,” but “She was really in hand and tugging on me all the way … I caught up to Pat [Day] in a hurry” (Phila. Daily News).
The big disappointment in the Delaware Handicap was 6-5 favorite Isola Piu Bella, who reared up in the gate and was slow breaking. “She just left her race in the gate,” said jockey John Velazquez. “That was it. She just left her race in the gate” (News Journal).
The only one of trainer Nick Zito’s 11 Triple Crown starters to run in the money in any of those races this spring, Sun King went wire-to-wire in the Leonard Richard Stakes. “You saw the real Sun King again,” said a happy Zito after the race, who credited an equipment change with the victory (News Journal). “The blinkers were a minor thing that made a big difference. He was on his game today. Did you see him gallop out after the wire? If the race was longer he would have won by a pole.”
Richards runner-up Golden Man accomplished the unusual feat of placing in two graded stakes races on back-to-back days. The day before the Richards, Golden Man finished third in the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth (Washington Post). His accomplishment is not unprecedented: Rushaway won the 1936 Illinois Derby and Latonia Derby on back-to-back days (Thoroughbred Times).
Smokume won the Tom Fool Handicap at Belmont (New York Post). “This feels pretty cool,” said jockey Chantal Sutherland, who earned her first US graded stakes win on the horse.
And on Saturday …
R Lady Joy held off Round Pond to win the Delaware Oaks (Phila. Inquirer). The longshot’s win stunned the crowd, but not trainer Kirk Ziadie. “I told my owners after her last race that if you give me two months to get her ready, we’ll go to the Delaware Oaks and I don’t care who is in it, we’ll win,” he said. Trainer John Servis made no excuses for Round Pond, the overwhelming favorite, but said that the sloppy track and the filly’s performance reminded him of another disappointing loss earlier this spring:
Owner Rick Porter said Round Pond “came out of the race great” and may run in the Alabama on August 20.
English Channel is now halfway to the Grand Slam (Washington Post).
