Dazzling Move ready to bust loose in Delaware Handicap
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After completing a tough slate of graded stakes at Saratoga this summer, Dazzling Move will have her long-awaited chance to shine in the Grade 3, $400,000 Delaware Handicap on Sunday.
“Hopefully, she gets a good position,” said Dazzling Move’s trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr. “She gets back to her best form and she should have a good shot to win it.”
The 1 1/8-mile Delaware Handicap is the feature on a Sunday card that also includes the $200,000 Battery Park and $100,000 Wilmington. The Delaware Handicap is the only graded stakes during a weekend in which Delaware will host six stakes races worth $1,150,000 in total purses.
After winning 3 of 14 starts for Mike Trombetta to begin her career, Dazzling Move transferred to Joseph’s barn ahead of her 2025 campaign. She made her graded stakes debut for her new trainer in February, winning the Grade 3 Royal Delta by three-quarters of a length.
Joseph has kept her in graded stakes company for most of the year, the one exception being a runner-up finish behind Candied in the $125,000 Allaire duPont at Pimlico. That marked the start of a new front-running era for the filly, and she went on to finish second in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps and Grade 2 Shuvee with similar trips.
The Grade 1 Personal Ensign was a natural next step in her successful summer at Saratoga, but she lost all chance in that race when she was bumped out of the gate and checked back to sixth. She never made a compelling bid and finished fifth by 18 3/4 lengths.
“She didn’t really get a chance,” Joseph said. “She obviously got shut off and checked and ended up way, way behind in a position she’s never been in before. She made a run and then flattened out. [It was] kind of a throw-out race. We’re going to move forward to this one.”
Three fillies in the Delaware Handicap field were cross-entered in the Grade 2 Beldame on Friday at Aqueduct. Margie’s Intention and Gun Song were to run in New York, leaving Majestic Oops as a key contender for trainer Dan Ward.
Ward had been pointing the 5-year-old mare to the Beldame since July, when she finished three lengths behind Randomized in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher. But when she drew inside of that same rival in Friday’s race at Aqueduct, the decision became more complex.
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First, the trainer was concerned that Majestic Oops’s post would require her to apply pressure to the four-time graded stakes winner to secure favorable track position. There also was considerable discussion about the weather. Majestic Oops has two victories on sloppy tracks, while Randomized has had less luck on that surface, but the forecast in New York didn’t materialize.
“It was a conference call with all of the new partners and we looked at” everything, Ward said. “I mean, we looked at the weather. The weather was supposed to be rain. We got the win in the slop. Randomized got beat by 28 lengths in the slop. So we were looking at everything and then we looked at all of the probables at Delaware, so we cross-entered and they made up their mind pretty quick.”
In the Delaware Handicap, Majestic Oops will carry 117 pounds under mostly cloudy skies. After the Molly Pitcher, Ward was preparing to run this weekend either way, and he used the Grade 1 Ballerina as a way to keep his mare sharp in August. He said it was a bonus that she finished third in the seven-furlong sprint, and he likes her chances more going 1 1/8 miles.
With Margie’s Intention and Gun Song out of the race, Dazzling Move and Majestic Oops hold a slight class edge over their remaining three rivals.
Regaled could keep pace with more steady improvement. After a third-place finish behind Dazzling Move in the Allaire duPont in May, the 4-year-old filly was purchased for $300,000 at the 2025 Inglis Digital USA May sale and made her first start for trainer Whit Beckman in August. She finished second by a head in the $200,000 Groupie Doll at Ellis Park and improved to finish third in the Grade 2 Locust Grove at Churchill Downs, her first graded stakes attempt as a 4-year-old.
A pair of longshots round out the field and were listed at 15-1 on the morning line. Runaway Diva finished second in the $100,000 Twixt at Laurel Park earlier this month for trainer Michelle Hemingway. Queen of Missoula has not run since finishing fourth in the Delaware Handicap last year and will make her first start for trainer Ben Perkins Jr.
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