Diodoro duo look tough in Owner Appreciation Distaff; Our Lost Love tops Take Charge Brandi

Fool’s Paradise and Reachreachreach will give trainer Robertino Diodoro a strong hand in Friday night’s $70,000 Owner Appreciation Distaff, one of two stakes on the card at Delta Downs.

The second stakes is the $70,000 Take Charge Brandi for 3-year-old fillies. Both races drew full fields of 10. They are each restricted to horses who have started at Delta since the meet opened Oct. 7, excluding stakes. The track closes its season Saturday.

Diodoro will finish the season as the meet’s second-leading trainer behind perennial champ Karl Broberg. Diodoro sends out Fool’s Paradise in the Distaff, a mile race for fillies and mares, off a close runner-up finish in an optional $25,000 claimer Jan. 25 at Delta. The 6 1/2-furlong race was run around two turns. Fool’s Paradise broke from post 9.

“She got into a little trouble last time and had an outside post,” Diodoro said. “They were only going six and a half, and she came flying. She ran a very good race and has come back with some real solid works at Delta.”

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Timothy Thornton, the meet’s leading rider, has the mount from post 10 for M and M Racing.

Reachreachreach enters the Distaff off a $25,000 conditioned claiming win Jan. 31 at Sam Houston. She pulled away in the sprint for nonwinners of three lifetime, shuttling home by 7 3/4 lengths. For the effort, Reachreachreach earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 85.

“I love that filly,” Diodoro said. “She’s just been a nice little horse for us. We bought her privately.”

Reachreachreach is a 4-year-old by Archarcharch owned by Penn Family Racing. She will be looking for her first win at a mile. Diodoro believes she can be effective at the distance Friday.

“Her last race, going seven-eighths, she was just widening,” he said.

Ty Kennedy has the mount from post 7.

Other leading contenders in the Distaff include Shes Our Fastest, a four-time stakes winner; Seeds of Time, who was a 15 3/4-length winner of a $20,000 claiming race Dec. 14 at Delta; and Summer’s Indy, who won her last start over Fool’s Paradise.

◗ Our Lost Love will start as a chief contender in the Take Charge Brandi, a seven-furlong race run around two turns. She comes into the stakes off a runner-up finish in the $100,000 Louisiana Premier Night Starlet on Feb. 8 at Delta.

Our Lost Love broke from the nine-hole in the mile Starlet. For the Take Charge Brandi, Our Lost Love will start from post 2 under Joel Dominguez. Joey Foster trains the stakes-winning daughter of Half Ours, who is looking for her first two-turn win for Tri-Star Racing.