Delacour barn looks live in Kelso, Noble Damsel

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Arnaud Delacour will have live chances in both of Belmont Park’s graded stakes Saturday when he sends out No Dozing in the Grade 2, $300,000 Kelso Handicap at a mile on dirt and Hawksmoor in the Grade 3, $200,000 Noble Damsel at a mile on turf.

No Dozing was one of six horses entered against 2017 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Battle of Midway in the Kelso, which could be used as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. Two of those horses – Sunny Ridge (Pennsylvania Derby Champions) and Still Having Fun (Gallant Bob) were also entered in stakes at Parx on Saturday.

No Dozing came off an eight-month layoff to win a stakes-caliber allowance race at Saratoga on July 21, earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. He next ran in the Grade 1 Forego, where a slow start and a wide trip resulted in a fifth-place finish, 3 1/2 lengths behind winner Whitmore.

“I thought he ran well enough,” Delacour said. “We didn’t have the best trip. He broke a touch slow, and when you get stuck behind those kind of horses and have to go around them, it’s a very tough task. He didn’t get beat that far. I wish he would have broke a little sharper.”

No Dozing is still in search of his first graded stakes victory. He is winless in seven tries in graded stakes, with seconds in the Grade 2 Remsen and the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile as his best placings.

Battle of Midway, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, arrived in New York on Wednesday following a cross-country flight that brought horses for this weekend’s stakes at Parx and landed at New Castle Airport in Delaware and a subsequent van ride. Battle of Midway is the 123-pound highweight, giving five to eight pounds to the reminder of the field. No Dozing, who will be ridden by David Cohen, gets in with 116.

The Kelso field, from the rail out, is: Battle of Midway (123 pounds), Timeline (118), Realm (116), No Dozing (116), Still Having Fun (116), Patternrecognition (115), and Sunny Ridge (118).

Hawksmoor was one of only six horses entered in the Noble Damsel, which will go as race 4 on the 10-race program. Hawksmoor is 2 for 2 at Belmont, having won the Grade 3 Beaugay and Grade 2 New York in 2017. Though she has yet to win at the one-mile distance, she did run second in the First Lady at Keeneland and Matriarch at Del Mar, both one-mile Grade 1 races.

Hawksmoor is coming off a second-place finish to Quidura in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga on Aug. 25.

“She’s back on a track that she’s won two times over,” Delacour said. “I’d love to win a race with her this year. Regardless if it’s a Grade 1, 2, or 3, the division is very difficult. She was game last time. She definitely fits with those kinds of horses.”

The Noble Damsel field, from the rail out, is: Lift Up, Uni, Dream Awhile, Hawksmoor, Mythical Mission, and Thundering Sky.