Always Sunshine gets perfect ride in Hockessin Stakes

STANTON, Del. – Frankie Pennington gave Always Sunshine a perfect ride, the 6-year-old ran straight and true, and the result was a 3 1/4-length victory in the six-furlong Hockessin Stakes at Delaware Park on Saturday.

Always Sunshine stalked The Man through reasonable fractions in the $75,000 Hockessin, took over in upper stretch, and edged away. He stopped the timer in 1:09.99 and paid $7.40 in the eight-horse field.

Stallwalkin’ Dude, the 2-1 favorite, was pinched back and steadied at the start. He made a mid-race three-wide move on the far turn, but flattened out in the stretch. He was up to take second from The Man by a nose.

Always Sunshine is owned by his breeder, Gil Campbell, and trained by Ned Allard. The Hockessin was Always Sunshine’s first stakes victory since he won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint on the 2016 Preakness undercard at Pimlico.

“He’s always acted like a nice horse,” Allard said. “He’s had a number of minor issues. It was just hard keeping him completely together, but this year he’s been going super.”

Always Sunshine ran well to be third in the Runhappy at Belmont Park in May while returning from a 10-month layoff. Allard brought him back in the Grade 2 True North at Belmont, but he was racing behind Westwood when that horse was injured.

“He didn’t know which way to go when that horse was pulled up,” Allard said.

While not committing to a next race for Always Sunshine, Allard said the $100,000 Tale of the Cat on Aug. 10 at Saratoga might be a good spot. The Tale of the Cat is a six-furlong sprint for nonwinners of a graded stakes this year.