Barcola reaffirms his fondness for Delaware Park

Barcola may be based in New York, but he loves Delaware Park.

A 4-year-old colt trained by Mark Hennig, Barcola ($5.20) shipped down to Delaware for the third time since June and easily captured his third stakes at the Stanton, Del., track in Saturday's $100,300 Kelso Stakes.

A narrow winner over Better Than Bonds when he won the Brandywine and R.R.M. Carpenter Memorial Handicap earlier this season, Barcola immediately went to the front under Kendrick Carmouche in the Kelso, while being pursued closely by his arch-rival. But unlike their previous two meetings, this time a real duel never developed as Barcola easily opened up a 2 1/2-length lead after the first six furlongs.

Better Than Bonds had nothing left in the stretch and faded to fourth as Barcola romped home by 6o1/4 lengths over Taming the Tiger. Smart Growth was another 3 3/4 lengths father back in third.

The winning time for 1 3/16 miles was 1:56.56.