Distance influences decision to run Launch in allowance
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After considering running Launch in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Inside Information Stakes at Gulfstream Park, trainer Jorge Delgado appears to have found a better spot for the 4-year-old filly, albeit for far less money, in a conditioned allowance race Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs.
The six-furlong distance of Wednesday’s $54,500 race 8 was more attractive to Delgado than the seven furlongs of the Inside Information – especially since Launch ran third in the Sugar Swirl Stakes on Dec. 21 at Gulfstream, her first start off a six-month layoff.
“Trying to keep her six furlongs,” Delgado said of his strategy. “The Inside Information was an option, but the fact she didn’t win off the layoff, a graded stakes going seven was not in my plan. She’s a valuable filly; she can have a great 2025. I’m going to regroup a little bit, add some confidence, and win this race, hopefully, and go from there.”
Since being moved to Delgado in the summer of 2023 after racing in Ireland, Launch has won 3 of 4 starts, including the Any Limit Stakes going six furlongs last March. Perhaps the competition was too strong in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness last May, a race in which Launch finished ninth of 12 after a tough start.
Delgado said that in the Sugar Swirl, he felt his best chance was to have Javier Castellano get Launch involved early and that she may have gotten tired coming off the layoff. On Wednesday, Launch will be reunited with David Egan, aboard for two wins and a second from three starts.
Delgado also has Pacific Rose in Wednesdays’ race. In four starts for the trainer, Pacific Rose has two allowance wins and two stakes defeats. She hasn’t run since finishing last of five in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom, 16 1/4 lengths behind Ways and Means. Delgado said Pacific Rose was entered in a race at Gulfstream a few weeks ago but was scratched due to a fever.
Trainer Jon Arnett also has two horses entered in this field, including Kant Resist It, the 2023 Prairie Meadows Debutante winner who has not run since December 2023. He also has Broken Hearts Bay, who won a second-level allowance on Dec. 4 at Tampa.
The six-horse field also includes Ruthless Rua, who has won three of her last four starts, and She’s My Warrior, a Minnesota-bred stakes winner in her last start on dirt in August.
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