Irad Ortiz Jr. and his mount, Fondly, took full advantage of a complacent field in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks, easing along on the front end on the way to a three-length victory. Trainer Graham Motion said that he could not have asked for a better trip for his 3-year-old filly, now a two-time stakes winner in four career starts. “I mean, look, that’s Irad,” Motion said. “He figured that out.” After winning the $250,000 Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs in her second start, Fondly went straight to the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and finished 11th. Motion said that the temptation to take her to Churchill Downs was too great, but he wanted to find a more sensible field this time. “We knew we were asking a lot of her to run in the Kentucky Oaks, but it’s a very tempting thing when you have those kinds of points,” Motion said. “Just a shame the track came up the way it did. I think it was just a tough experience for her. But, look, she bounced right out of it, trained here for three weeks, and had some really good works on this track. She’s a very easy filly, very straightforward. She’s as talented as any 3-year-old filly I’ve had.” The field of nine assembled for the Delaware Oaks featured the top three finishers in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico last month, including race winner Margie’s Intention. That trio finished second, third, and fourth at Delaware Park Saturday, but there was very little they could do to catch Fondly in the 1 1/16-mile race. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. After guiding her to the lead through an opening quarter-mile in 23.53 seconds, Ortiz successfully slowed the race down to a crawl. Without losing an inch of her lead, Fondly completed the next quarter in 26.11 seconds for a half-mile time of 49.64 seconds. She wasn’t being asked at all, and she was gone by the time the other contenders came calling. Motion was especially happy to see that she completed three quarters in 1:14.66, at which point she repelled a few stalking longshots to regain her one-length lead in the stretch. “I think he was playing with them a little bit,” Motion said of Ortiz. After Admiral Dennis’s win in the $200,000 Delaware Derby, Brad Cox nearly pulled off the double with Margie’s Intention. The Black-Eyed Susan winner ran on well to finish second, just ahead of Kenzie Queen and Paris Lilly. Those three certainly carried on their rivalry from Pimlico, and Margie’s Intention got the better of them again, but this time, she was three lengths behind at the wire. Fondly finished in 1:45.61 and paid $9.80 to win. It was Ortiz’s third victory of the day, which also included a stakes win aboard 3-year-old gelding Full Moon Madness in the $100,000 Alapocas Run. He and Motion earned another victory together earlier in the day with Light Mood, a French-bred 3-year-old gelding who won his North American debut in a $66,000 allowance. The Delaware Oaks was the final stakes race on a record-breaking 10-race card for Delaware Park. The track earned a handle of $6.5 million Saturday, easily surpassing the previous record handle of $4.9 million earned for the Delaware Handicap card on July 15, 2007. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.