Cajun Delta Dawn shows she's money in the bank
Three Rules isn’t the only Florida-based 2-year-old unbeaten in four starts. The filly Cajun Delta Dawn also has yet to lose after a quartet of races, and after scoring three narrow wins, she dominated her rivals Saturday in the $300,000 Susan’s Girl division of the Florida Sire Stakes.
The winner’s share of the purse gave her and owner Curtis Mikkelsen $381,105 in earnings, about $500 more than Affirmed winner Three Rules has earned and the biggest 2-year-old bankroll in North America this year.
Cajun Delta Dawn, who won by five lengths while racing early on the card before the track was harrowed and opened up, got a career-best 75 Beyer. She appeared to have come out of the race in good shape and is on target for the $500,000 My Dear Girl division of the Florida Sire Stakes on Oct. 1, trainer David Fawkes said.
“She doesn’t do any more than she has to do, and she doesn’t blow up the clock in the morning,” Fawkes said. “She’s very mature, not physically so much but mentally. She’s so easy, nothing complicated about her, and she’s not a heavy-built filly, so she’s easy on herself.”
Fawkes said he’d probably work Cajun Delta Dawn, by Kantharos, once before the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl, which will be her first start over a route of ground.
“I don’t see two turns being a problem,” Fawkes said.
◗ Six horses are entered in the Thursday feature, a 5 1/2-furlong dirt allowance race with multiple allowance conditions and a $62,500 claiming option, and among them are Speechify and Little Daddy, both of whose career peak came way back in 2014. Speechify won the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes in December 2014 but has not won a race since. But he is one step ahead of Little Daddy, who finished fifth behind Speechify in the 2014 Mr. Prospector and on Thursday makes his first start since that race.