Adieu, Hystericalady lead way in Oaks

A pair of graded-stakes winners from high-percentage barns, one based in New York and the other in California, head a field of eight 3-year-old fillies entered Monday for Saturday's $500,000 Delaware Oaks.

Adieu, winner of the Grade 1 Frizette and Grade 2 Spinaway as a 2-year-old, will represent Todd Pletcher in the Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile Oaks at Delaware Park.

Hystericalady will ship in for the northern California powerhouse stable of Jerry Hollendorfer after winning last month's Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks.

Adieu will attempt to make amends after failing as the favorite in her only two starts this season, the Grade 3 La Troienne at Churchill Downs and the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont.

Hystericalady has moved forward on the Beyer Speed Figure scale in each of her last four starts, culminating with a 110 for her 7 1/2-length romp in the Hollywood Oaks.

The two biggest threats to the favorites appear to be the locally based Gasia and New York shipper Last Romance.

Gasia, trained by Larry Jones, is coming off a one-length win in the $100,000 Susan's Girl at Delaware.

Last Romance most recently was third behind Bushfire and Hello Liberty in the Acorn.

The remainder of the field consists of Amandatude, who has been no worse than third in four starts in stakes at the Delaware meet; Diamond Spirit, second in the Grade 3 Sands Point at Belmont two starts ago; Mia's Reflection, the winner of two straight at Calder; and Peak Maria's Way, easy winner of an off-the-turf overnight stakes two starts ago at Delaware.

* Defending champion Honey Ryder, a multiple graded-stakes winner, tops a group of eight older turf females for the $300,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial Breeders' Cup at 1 3/8 miles.

A 5-year-old, Honey Ryder has won 7 of 10 starts the past two seasons, including last year's Dick as the 4-5 favorite.

Her chief competition figures to come from Olaya, who was second to Honey Ryder in the Grade 3 Orchid Handicap at Gulfstream in her most recent start, and Latice, who was second to Honey Ryder in last year's Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine. Olaya is trained by Graham Motion, who has won five of the last seven runnings of the Dick.

* Survivalist, the winner of last year's Grade 3 Gotham, heads a field of 10 older males for the $100,000 R.R.M. Carpenter Jr. Memorial. A 4-year-old trained by Shug McGaughey, Survivalist has beaten allowance runners at Belmont in his last two starts.