Delta Downs: Jackpot runners to arrive Tuesday and Wednesday

Flights bringing horses to Louisiana for the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot and Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess are due to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to officials with Tex Sutton Forwarding Company. The horses are scheduled to fly into Lake Charles, La., which is about 30 miles from Delta.

The Jackpot and Princess head a card of eight stakes worth $2.2 million on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Tuesday’s flight is to originate in New York, and will stop off to pick up horses in Kentucky. The flight Wednesday will be bringing runners in from Southern California.

Entries for all of the Jackpot card stakes will be taken on Wednesday. The Jackpot is expected to draw Hightail, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint; Grade 2 winners Overanalyze, Know More and Bern Identity; and Goldencents, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Champagne.

[DELTA JACKPOT: Get PPs, watch full Saturday card live]

Fillies pre-entered in the Princess include Salamera, the runner-up in the Grade 2 Adirondack; Rose to Gold, a two-time stakes winner in Florida; and Madame Cactus, winner of the local prep, the $150,000 My Trusty Cat. Another pre-entry, Gal About Town, who finished second in the Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill, is on the fence, said trainer Bret Calhoun. He said the other option would be the Grade 2, $150,000 Golden Rod at the filly’s base of Churchill on Nov. 24.

Delta will have a special afternoon Jackpot card, with first post at 1:15 p.m. Central. The Jackpot is tentatively scheduled as the seventh race, with an approxiamte post of 4:15 p.m. It will serve as the final leg of a $100,000-guaranteed pick four that has a 50-cent minimum. The all-stakes sequence starts in race four and is to include the Princess, scheduled as the sixth race with a post of 3:43 p.m.