Delightful Claire jumps from big Beyer maiden win to Prioress
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After coming within a neck of winning it last year with Two Sharp, trainer Phil Bauer gets another crack at capturing the Grade 3, $175,000 Prioress Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga when he sends out Delightful Claire in the six-furlong dirt race on Saturday.
Delightful Claire is coming off a 9 1/4-length maiden victory here on Aug. 2 in her second career start, a performance that earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure. Bauer said he wasn’t necessarily looking to run here off that race, but with only six in the field, the Prioress looks like a good spot. Delightful Claire is the 6-5 morning-line favorite.
“I don’t think you ever expect them to run like she did,” Bauer said Thursday. “We were very confident coming in. I thought it was a very good maiden. That’s yet to be seen until all those horses run back, but the way she did it was fun to watch.”
Delightful Claire’s second start was a marked improvement from her first, when she finished third in a race that produced two other next-out winners, including Princess Proud, who won that race. Delightful Claire, a daughter of Thousand Words, debuted in blinkers, but Bauer made an adjustment to that equipment for her race at Saratoga.
“We had full-cup blinkers on her because she was a horse that was a little green coming into it,” Bauer said. “It was probably a bit too much for her so we cut them back, put some holes in it and I think she could absorb the race a little better, and racing experience always helps. I don’t know if she had a light-bulb moment but she certainly showed advanced maturity in that second start.”
Bauer is hoping Delightful Claire, who will be ridden by Luan Machado, can work out a stalking trip behind speed horses Rojo Rita and Long Neck Paula.
Long Neck Paula, trained by Wesley Ward, is a two-time stakes winner who is coming off a neck defeat to Indy Bay in the Jersey Girl Stakes on June 8. Indy Bay has since come back to win the Grade 2 Charles Town Oaks.
Speaking of the matchup with Delightful Claire, Ward said, “She is obviously the danger, but now she’s jumping into stakes. Mine certainly has the experience edge as far as running against tougher company. We’ll see which one of the two is the best.”
Rojo Rita was beaten a length by Mae Town in a turf allowance at Churchill Downs on June 11. Mae Town was one of four horses to come out of that race to win their next start. Roja Rita returns to dirt, where she has a win and a second from three starts for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.
Stone Smuggler, trained by Jorge Abreu, hasn’t won since she captured the $500,000 Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series last Dec. 14 at Aqueduct. Flat Out Time, trained by George Weaver, is coming off a first-level allowance win at Delaware Park. Praying, twice a runner-up in stakes for trainer Robert Medina, rounds out the field.
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