Barbadian Runner catches Cooke Creek late in Battery Park Stakes
Barbadian Runner bounced back in emphatic fashion to win the $200,000 Battery Park Stakes on Saturday at Delaware Park, flying late to snipe the front-runner Cooke Creek by three-quarters of a length.
He has now won eight stakes for trainer Henry Walters.
“Leaving the three-eighths pole, he really hadn't gotten the track yet,” Walters said. “He was still a little farther out of it at that point than I had hoped. On that kind of track, it's hard to make up some ground. But within an eighth of a mile, he was rolling, and it was just a matter of him getting a clear trip from that point.”
Coming off an unlucky fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic, in which he lost a shoe and struggled to work through traffic, jockey Forest Boyce handled the 1-2 favorite patiently at Delaware. Advancing with determination from fourth, he inched closer to the front on the far turn before decisively moving through a wide gap between horses to attack the leader.
With an uncontested early lead in the 1 1/8-mile race, the 6-1 outsider Cooke Creek completed the opening quarter-mile in 23.83 seconds and half-mile in 48.90. The reasonable fractions gave him every chance for a gate-to-wire victory, but the Michael Maker trainee couldn’t deny the charging favorite, who closed inside of him and edged clear near the wire.
Barbadian Runner completed the 1 1/8-mile distance on a muddy, sealed track in 1:50.95 and paid $3 to win.
Cool Intentions, a last-out allowance winner making his second start this year for Jorge Delgado, chased in second early and never advanced on the pacesetter. He finished 2 3/4 lengths behind Cooke Creek in third.
Rocky Run Stakes
Full Access had the chance to make Delaware Park his home for the week and ended his short stay at the track in style, cruising home to win by three lengths in the $150,000 Rocky Run Stakes. The juvenile colt remains unbeaten in two starts for trainer Riley Mott.
Because the Delaware Handicap card was postponed last week due to rain, Mott decided to keep Full Access at Delaware and even gave him a published four-furlong workout on Sept. 29. The additional preparation might have made the difference in his commanding victory around two turns. He paid $5.80 to win.
“We shipped in the Wednesday before the race was initially supposed to run and they canceled, nothing that was in our control,” Mott said. “But luckily, we were stabled in Cathal Lynch's barn and he was very hospitable to us and let us stay for the week. Their crew took care of the horse. I had a groom there with him, but they trained him every day for us and got him breezed. I think it was beneficial.”
Jockey Jaime Torres settled into a stalking position aboard the 9-5 favorite in the early going of the mile race, chasing in fourth while the Brad Cox-trained colt Hammerin Henry dueled with Indian Pharoah through an opening quarter-mile in 25.30 seconds and half-mile in 50.11.
When it was time for Full Access to launch his bid, Torres didn’t need to urge him much to launch to the front. After a brief battle with Hammerin Henry, he pulled clear by three lengths at the top of the stretch and held that margin to the wire. He completed the mile in 1:39.93.
Lithos, who ultimately shipped to Delaware Park instead of staying in New York, switched from turf to dirt in his second start and closed from last to finish second for trainer Whit Beckman. He easily cleared Hammerin Henry in the stretch, finishing 2 1/2 lengths ahead of the flagging front-runner.
White Clay Creek Stakes
Whitten Way stayed home for the $150,000 White Clay Creek Stakes on Saturday and picked up her second stakes victory at Delaware, running down the 3-2 front-runner Life Changing by 1 1/2 lengths. The juvenile filly remains unbeaten in two starts on wet tracks and impressed in her first try around two turns.
“I was pretty confident she wouldn't mind [two turns], but you never know until you run it,” trainer Gary Capuano said. “I was just really worrying about whether she could get a trip, and she was able to do that. She was able to save a little ground around the first turn and get position and swung a little wide turning for home. She had some good momentum and kicked on.”
Capuano cross-entered Whitten Way and her stablemate, Martiniwithatwist, in the $100,000 Smart Halo at Laurel Park on Saturday, but he always intended to keep Whitten Way at home. Martiniwithatwist, who defeated her in the $125,000 Small Wonder last month, scratched from both races.
In August, jockey Emanuel Rosario earned his first career stakes victory when Whitten Way won the $75,000 Blue Hen on a muddy track at Delaware. He and the juvenile filly earned their second career stakes victories together as well on Saturday.
Life Changing, the New York-based front-runner trained by Todd Pletcher, set a modest early pace in the two-turn mile race, maintaining a short lead through an opening quarter-mile in 24.76 seconds and half-mile in 49.33. Jockey Samuel Marin had her right where she wanted her, but Rosario and Whitten Way rolled home anyway from sixth.
While most runners in the top flight struggled to make up places in the stretch, Whitten Way ran by all of them in short order. Her duel with Life Changing was fairly straightforward, as the 6-1 closer quickly wore down the speedy contender and kicked clear late. She completed the mile in 1:40.59 and paid $15.20 to win.
My Hometown Gal, a 12-1 outsider trained by Michael Gorham, chased in second on the backstretch but never got around Life Changing, finishing three-quarters of a length behind her in third.
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