Escape Clause points to Delaware Handicap as road trip continues

Escape Clause spent part of April and most of May with trainer Don Schnell’s small string at Canterbury Park, but who knows when – or if – she’ll return?

Escape Clause almost beat North America’s leading older dirt-route mare, Midnight Bisou, in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 14 but ran below form when finishing a well-beaten fourth June 8 in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps. Schnell had driven the mare himself from Canterbury to Belmont and, instead of heading back to Minnesota, has moved on to Delaware Park. Schnell, reached Tuesday by phone, said Escape Clause has settled in comfortably at Delaware and is on course to start July 13 in the Delaware Handicap.

“As of the last little bit, I have no fixed address. I’m going around wherever Escape Clause takes me,” Schnell said. “I don’t know a single person here, and it’s kind of lonely, but if she runs good, it’ll definitely be worth it.”

Schnell and Escape Clause both are Canadians, she by the obscure sire Going Commando and out of a mare by a horse named Circulating. Schnell and his mare found success last fall and winter on the Southern California circuit, easily winning the Grade 3 La Canada Stakes in January, and now are trying their luck on the opposite coast.

Schnell said there’s reason to believe Escape Clause can perform better at Delaware than she did at Belmont.

“It was a rough trip out there from Minnesota. I almost didn’t run her because she wasn’t herself. She lost a lot of weight traveling, and if I had it to do all over again, I’d fly her,” said Schnell.

Escape Clause has put weight back on and breezed a sharp half-mile in 47.60 seconds last Saturday at Delaware, which, after a lot of travel, is starting to feel like home.

◗ Just as Minnesota-bred standout Mr. Jagermeister was on the mend from a hoof abscess, he kicked a wall, lacerated his hock, got an infection, and wound up at a clinic for two weeks, trainer Valorie Lund said. Mr. Jagermeister has gotten back to the track but is “at least a month or six weeks” away from a start, Lund said.