Elate begins stretch drive in Delaware Handicap

Following a nine-start 3-year-old campaign, which ran from February to November in 2017 and included Grade 1 wins in the Alabama and Beldame, Elate raced only twice last year at 4 due to splint injuries that delayed the beginning of her season and then sent her to the sidelines prematurely.

This year has been different, and on Saturday Elate will make the fourth start of her campaign in the 82nd running of the Grade 2, $750,000 Delaware Handicap. If successful, she will become the seventh filly or mare to win the race twice and the first since three-time champion Royal Delta turned the trick in 2012-13.

With a win, Bill Mott, the trainer of Elate and Royal Delta, will join Todd Pletcher and Henry S. Clark as the only four-time winners of the Del Cap.

While 2018 was something of a lost season for Elate, she did race extremely well. She returned from an eight-month layoff to win the 1 1/4-mile Del Cap comfortably by more than three lengths and then was second by a neck to Abel Tasman in a controversial running of the Grade 1 Personal Ensign after the pair bumped hard at the sixteenth pole.

Jockey Jose Ortiz on Elate claimed foul against Mike Smith and Abel Tasman, but after a lengthy review the stewards let the results stand.

“She ran so huge in the Personal Ensign and then she had a splint, which is unusual for a horse of her age,” Mott said. “It cost her a lot of time.”

Mott is hoping for a more complete 2019 season with Elate that would include a second try in the Personal Ensign, the Beldame at Belmont Park, and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita.

“If we could make a wish list for her, those would be the races, but she’s missed time before so we’ll just have to wait and see,” Mott said.

In her first two starts this year, Elate finished second and then third to division leader Midnight Bisou in a pair of 1 1/16-mile races at Oaklawn Park, the Grade 2 Azeri and the Grade 1 Apple Blossom. She broke through with a victory last out in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs going 1 1/8 miles.

“For sure it was good to see her back in form last time and get a win,” Mott said. “She seems to be coming back to herself now.

“I’d say her best distance is between nine and 10 furlongs, and 10 furlongs might be her very best.”

Ortiz will be aboard Elate, the 122-pound highweight who will be a healthy favorite in the nine-horse field.

Blue Prize and Escape Clause figure to be Elate’s strongest challengers. Blue Prize got first run on Elate in the Fleur de Lis but was outfinished and ended up second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths. The overachieving Manitoba-bred Escape Clause finished ahead of Elate when second by a nose to Midnight Bisou in the Apple Blossom. She has since finished fourth in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park.

Escape Clause this year has raced at Santa Anita, where she won the Grade 3 La Canada; Sunland Park, where she won the Harry Henson; Oaklawn; and Belmont. Trainer Don Schnell thinks the traveling might have caught up to her in the Phipps. She is now based at Delaware, where she has worked twice.

“I think she is going to run much better this Saturday,” Schnell said. “I hope being here for a month in advance will finally give us a little bit of a home-field advantage.”

Blue Prize, a 6-year-old Argentine-bred mare trained by Ignacio Correas, has scored four of her five United States wins in Kentucky, including the Grade 1 Spinster last fall. She also has won the 2018 Fleur de Lis, Grade 2 Fall City, and Grade 3 Locust Grove – all at Churchill – and the Top Flight Invitational at Aqueduct.

The Del Cap will be Blue Prize’s first U.S. start beyond 1 1/8 miles since she was imported to the U.S. following a 2016 campaign.

“She is tough. She does not mind traveling, she loves to race, she is very adaptable,” Correas said. “I think she is going to love the mile and a quarter.”

Another Broad also should like the added distance after making her last three starts at nine furlongs. If she wins, it would be Pletcher’s fifth Del Cap win and break his tie with Clark.

The field is completed by Goodonehoney, Gotham Gala, Promise of Spring, Queen Nekia, and Vente to Go.