Delaware Park: Bryan's Jewel and Onepointhreekarats meet again in Unbridled Belle Stakes

The 5-year-old mares Bryan's Jewel and Onepointhreekarats, who took turns beating each other in a pair of stakes earlier this season, square off for the third time since May in Thursday's $50,000 Unbridled Belle Stakes at Delaware Park.

Although the score is 1-1 in head-to-head matchups, Bryan's Jewel will undoubtedly go to the post favored among nine fillies and mares racing a mile and 70 yards on the main track Thursday on the basis of her neck victory in the Grade 3 Obeah on June 15. The biggest win Bryan's Jewel has recorded in 24 career starts came just seven days after she beat Onepointhreekarats by 3 3/4 lengths in the John Rooney Memorial.

In the first start of Delaware's 2013 meet for both mares, Onepointhreekarats posted a front-running, two-length victory over Bryan's Jewel in the Winter Melody.

Bryan's Jewel returns to Delaware, where she is 4 for 10, after finishing second as the 4-5 favorite in the off-the-turf Lady Canterbury in Minnesota a month ago.

Onepointhreekarats has been off since June 8, but her trainer, Graham Motion, shows a 6-for-24 record with females returning from a break of 61 to 180 days in a route race on dirt.

The most difficult horse to gauge in the field is Cash for Clunkers, whose form soured after she was narrowly beaten in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap in May 2012. In three subsequent starts, Cash for Clunkers has been beaten a collective 83 1/4 lengths, including a last-place finish in last summer's Delaware Handicap.

Cash for Clunkers has been her own worst enemy. She hit the gate at the start of last fall's Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont, then was scratched from her first scheduled start this season, the Monmouth Beach on May 26, when she tossed her rider in the post parade, flipped over the rail, and ran off. She subsequently was fractious in the prerace loading and raced competitively for six furlongs before stopping badly in a minor stakes at Monmouth.