Delta Wind's best should be good enough
Handicapping and training would be less difficult, and less interesting, if horses ran to their ability every single start. But horses do not always fire, for reasons that can include problematic pace, class/speed deficiency, troubled trips, fitness, distance or footing.
Then there are horses like Delta Wind, who had no alibi last month when she bombed as the odds-on favorite. “I don’t see anything wrong with her,” trainer John Sadler. “That’s why we’re going back, because her last race was a head-scratcher.”
One month after a baffling fourth in an allowance sprint for Cal-bred fillies and mares, Delta Wind runs Friday at the same condition in the race-7 co-feature at Del Mar. If she runs like she did last time at Santa Anita, she might not hit the board. But if she replicates her maiden runaway at Del Mar two starts back, Delta Wind might win in a romp.
“The only thing I’m seeing from her is an ‘every-other-race’ effort,” Sadler said. If the pattern continues, Delta Wind is due for a top effort in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint She faces late-runner Kristi’s Tiger and front-runner Rain Diva.
In race 2, an entry-level allowance mile for fillies and mares, Peter Miller-trained California Kook faces Bob Baffert trainees Ginja and Velvet Slippers. California Kook finished last in her most recent start, with an obvious alibi. She was an outclassed longshot in a Grade 2. Friday at Del Mar, California Kook is back with her friends.
California Kook’s three starts on Del Mar dirt produced two wins and a second, including an allowance runner-up two back in which she finished far in front of Ginja. But a dearth of pace Friday provides presser Ginja a potential advantage. Eight of the nine dirt miles at this meet were won by horses positioned one-two, including five that led gate to wire.
Ginja defeated Velvet Slippers in summer, but Velvet Slippers has improved since stretching out. She won a maiden route by open lengths and missed by a head in a stakes at Los Alamitos. California Kook, Ginja, and Velvet Slippers appear equally matched.
Not so for the likely favorite in the Cal-bred allowance. Delta Wind is simply the fastest dirt filly in the field, if she runs to her 86-Beyer maiden romp two starts back. Delta Wind benefits Friday by a pace scenario that is less crowded, and a return to Del Mar.
“She looks like she wants the lead,” Sadler noted, though that might not be possible with fleet-footed Rain Diva to her inside. But if Rain Diva speeds to the lead, Delta Wind could get an advantageous trip positioned second. And if 6 1/2 furlongs proves too far for both front-runners, route-to-sprint Kristi’s Tiger might collar them both.
◗ One of the most attractive gambles Friday is in the eighth race, a turf mile for Cal-bred 2-year-old maiden fillies. Turf-route-bred Bonnie Brae stretches out following a better-than-looked fourth-place sprint debut on dirt, and can upset dropper La Deuxieme Etoile.