Delaware attracts Walder and Jacobson

Two of the leading trainers during the winter at Aqueduct and Gulfstream Park plan to have stables for the first time at Delaware Park this season.

Peter Walder, fourth in the current Gulfstream trainer standings, and David Jacobson, who finished fifth during the recently concluded inner-track meet in New York, intend to race locally based horses when Delaware launches its 136-day meet on April 19.

Walder, 39, will have about 40 horses on the grounds. Jacobson, 54, intends to have about 15 horses at Delaware while keeping the remainder of his string in New York.

Through April 1, Walder has gone 20 for 57 (35 percent) at Gulfstream, only four wins behind the powerhouse stable of meet leader Todd Pletcher and two back of Nick Zito.

Walder said he anticipates that most of the horses he brings north will run locally rather than going out of town.

"Most people will tell you that Delaware Park is good because it is centrally located between the Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey tracks, but I am not coming to Delaware to ship," Walder said. "I am coming to Delaware to run."

Walder will have a variety of horses, including the 4-year-old colt Salzburg, a recent $100,000 purchase who ran fourth in his first start for his new connections in a $25,000 optional claimer on Monday at Gulfstream.

"Maggi Moss is planning on sending me horses, and I have a handful of grass horses," Walder said. "I think I will have a really nice mix. I got a couple of maidens and some condition horses, so I am trying to have a horse or two for every category."

Jacobson, who went 22 for 107 during Aqueduct's inner dirt meet, decided to try Delaware on the advice of jockey Mario Pino and his agent, Bill Castle.

"They advised that Delaware Park has a great meet - that it is a real classy place, with the nice horses, and I should fit in well there," Jacobson said. "Jerome Castle, Bill's father, was my first owner, and it is just really special to be able to do business with his son. Bill strongly advised me that Delaware is a good place for me."

Jacobson, whose family tree with racing ties includes his father, Buddy, and uncles Hirsch and Gene Jacobs, is in his second stint as a trainer. He sold real estate from 1982 until he got back into the game last summer.

"I just got my license on July 25, so I am just feeling out all my different options because I would like to expand," Jacobson said. "And Delaware is definitely on the top of the list of the places I would like to be."

Jacobson intends to shuttle horses between Delaware and New York.

"I am going to have a variety of horses that fit the condition book," said Jacobson. "We are going to run our horses wherever there is a race for them."

Walder and Jacobson will be joining a cast of Delaware regulars that includes Scott Lake, Steve Klesaris, Tim Ritchey, Michael Gorham, Tony Dutrow, Larry Jones, and Michael Pino.