Come Dancing gets first stakes win in Royal Delta

The Royal Delta Stakes’ loss proved Come Dancing’s gain.

Pace factors Divine Miss Grey and Frostie Anne were scratched from the $100,000 Royal Delta on Sunday at Belmont, leaving Come Dancing to dictate the tempo – and leaving the race at her mercy.

Come Dancing and John Velazquez squished along over a sloppy, sealed track through splits of 24.52 and 48.72 seconds, sloughed off a brief upper-stretch challenge from No Need to Appeal, and drew away to win the Royal Delta by 6 1/4 lengths.

Berned, who sloshed her way around the oval down near the inside for most of the trip and had to briefly steady off heels when she came out to finish through the homestretch, finished second, a half-length in front of No Need to Appeal. Dreamcall couldn’t make an impression from the back of the short field and beat only Sneaky Betty home.

Come Dancing ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.78 and paid $7.90 to win.

Carlos Martin trains Come Dancing for her breeder, Blue Devil Racing Stable. The 4-year-old is a daughter of Malibu Moon and the Tiznow mare Tizahit, who won the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct in 2009. Come Dancing won her career debut in November 2016 but didn’t race again for 16 months.

Her comeback run last December produced another win and an eye-catching 96 Beyer Speed Figure, but Come Dancing flopped in the Interborough Stakes in January and didn’t start again until July, when she won yet another comeback run. Martin stretched her out over a distance of ground for the first time on Sunday and came away with Come Dancing’s first stakes win.