WILMINGTON, DEL. - On paper, Idiomatic was supposed to go to the front and take the field as far as she could in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Delaware Handicap for fillies and mares at 1 3/16 miles at Delaware Park. You know what they say about the best-laid plans. Idiomatic bobbled badly at the start and wound up next to last as the field passed the stands for the first time. Meanwhile, Grade 3 winner Classy Edition grabbed the lead outside of Battle Bling, and they set fractions of 23.77 and 48.40 seconds. Florent Geroux was anxious aboard Idiomatic. “I thought I was the lone speed in the race,” he said. “When you break like this, you just sit chilly and hope for the best.” Geroux settled Idiomatic into a rhythm, and they advanced on the leaders after six furlongs in 1:12.29. Battle Bling called it a day, and Idiomatic loomed boldly outside of Classy Edition at the three-eighths pole. “I thought I was going to win very easily,” Geroux added. :: Take your handicapping to the next level and play with FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic.  Classy Edition had something to say about that. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche asked for more, and Classy Edition gave it. She battled back inside of Idiomatic, and the two 4-year-old fillies exchanged knockout blows during a resounding stretch drive. At the wire, Idiomatic was a head better than game Classy Edition. Morning Matcha finished another 9 1/4 lengths behind in third. Completing the order of finish were Royal Take Charge, Gamestonks and Battle Bling. Idiomatic stepped the distance in 1:56.41 over the fast track and returned $2.80 as the prohibitive betting favorite. “She got a little bit distracted turning for home,” Geroux said. “At the quarter pole, she kept looking around. Underneath me, I feel like she’s not quite focused. I had to give her a couple of reminders at the end, but I think, at the end, I still had the best filly, especially considering the break. “I said I think we fumbled the snap, and still scored a touchdown,” trainer Brad Cox said via telephone after the race. “At the end of the day, she's 4, but she’s only had eight runs underneath her belt. That’s what good horses do. They’re capable of overcoming obstacles, and she overcame one today.” Classy Edition lost little in defeat. “She gave me everything,” Carmouche said. “The best horse won today. I thought I had every fraction my way. With him breaking bad, I thought I did everything to make the horse beat me at the end.  She ran a beautiful race.” Idiomatic is a sizable daughter of Curlin out of stakes winner Lockdown, a full sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Close Hatches. A Kentucky homebred owned by Juddmonte, Idiomatic has won five of her last six races, including victories in the Latonia Stakes at Turfway on March 25, and the Grade 3 Shawnee at Churchill on June 3. The Delaware Handicap was one of three stakes on the Saturday card with the $100,000 Dashing Beauty for fillies and mares at six furlongs and the $150,000 Battery Park for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles. *Battery Park A bevy of scratches forced the connections of Doppelganger to change their plan of attack for the Battery Park. Originally a race that featured plenty of pace, the defections of Fearless, Whelan Springs, Offaly Fast, Warrant and Zabracadabra left Ridin With Biden as the controlling speed. Luckily, Doppelganger has gears, and jockey Jevian Toledo used one of them leaving the gate. He made Ridin With Biden work during the opening furlong before that gelding cleared to the lead and the rail through an opening quarter-mile clocked in 24.01 seconds. Doppelganger willingly came to hand for Toledo and settled outside of Ridin With Biden as the pacesetter seemingly coasted to a half-mile split of 49.15.   Toledo pushed the button and Doppelganger responded. He confronted Ridin With Biden after six furlongs in 1:13.11, went right on by, and churned away to win by 2 1/4 lengths in 1:44.36. He paid $3.80 to win as the second choice in the betting. Longshot Forewarned nipped Ridin With Biden on the wire by a nose to finish second. “I guess the race was me and [Ridin With Biden] from the beginning, so I could not let him go to the front by himself,” Toledo said. “I broke sharp and tried to go for to the front. When [Paco Lopez] let [Ridin With Biden] go, I just took a hold of my horse. Coming to the half-mile, I let my horse roll a little bit and put pressure on him.” A $570,000 yearling by Into Mischief, Doppelganger begin his career with trainer Bob Baffert in Southern California, where he finished second in the Grade 2 San Felipe in his third lifetime start. Doppelganger bounced between Baffert and trainer Tim Yakteen before settling at Russell’s home base of Laurel Park. Doppelganger won his first three starts for Russell, including the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 8. The Carter was Russell’s first Grade 1 victory. Two months after the Carter, Doppelganger finished last of nine in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, his final start before the Battery Park. Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, Doppelganger is owned by a large partnership that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables and Robert E. Masterson. He has won 5 of 12 races for earnings of $539,900. *Dashing Beauty Alva Starr became the latest stakes winner produced by the mare Sittin At the Bar when she wired the field in the Dashing Beauty. A daughter of Lord Nelson trained by Brett Brinkman, 3-year-old Alva Starr faced older horses for the first time and was unfazed. She bounced to the lead under jockey Mychel Sanchez, set fractions of 22.28 and 44.88 while pressured by I’m the Boss of Me, then sprinted home to win by 6 3/4 lengths in 1:09.34. “He [Brinkman] told me she could do anything,” jockey Mychel Sanchez said about Alva Starr’s running style. “I thought I had a nice easy lead. Even though I was going fast, she was doing it comfortable. I took a little peek back, and I knew I was in a very good spot at the three-eighth pole. Turning for home, she exploded. It was really nice.” Cheetara, fresh off a win in Pimlico’s Skipat Stakes, rallied for second. She placed a length ahead of third-place finisher Sweet Gracie. Then came Malibu Beauty, I’m the Boss of Me, Clout Chaser and Ms. Bucchero. Juror Number Four, Late Frost and Scarlet Stripe scratched. Favored Alva Starr returned $4.80 to win. Sittin At the Bar was a top-notch Louisiana-bred for Brinkman and owner P. Dale Ladner. A multiple stakes-winner, she captured 11 of 19 starts for lifetime earnings of $705,896. As prolific a runner as Sittin At the Bar proved to be on the racetrack, she’s been an even better producer. A mating with California Chrome produced Cilla, who won the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga in 2021. Club Car, a mare by Malibu Moon, was a stakes-winner with $677,265 in earnings. Jack the Umpire, by Bodemeister, won two stakes. “She’s meant the world to us,” Brinkman said about Sittin At the Bar. “I bought Serena’s Song as a weanling and sold her as a yearling, and that one is the only other mare I’ve been around that’s accomplished anywhere near what this filly has done. [Serena’s Song] accomplished way more, but you [rarely] find [fillies like this].” This wasn’t Alva Starr’s first sojourn to Delaware. She won her debut here late last summer, then was shelved for the remainder of 2022. “We found a little roughening in an ankle, stopped on her and did some therapy work,” Brinkman continued. “As much mental as anything else. She had tons of talent, but she wasn’t mentally ready to do it.” Alva Starr returned to the races with a runner-up finish behind subsequent stakes-winner Unifying in a first-level allowance at Oaklawn on May 5. In her final start before the Dashing Beauty, she finished second, beaten a neck, in that condition at Churchill on May 27. “We chased the race at Oaklawn,” Brinkman admitted. “It was a good starting off point. We went to Churchill with big expectations, and we ended up second. I still don’t think we were quite tight.” Bred in Kentucky by Brinkman and Ladner, she is owned by Ladner. Brinkman said that Alva Starr was also under consideration for today’s Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont. “I didn’t want to haul her to New York today,” Brinkman said. “The distance and the mental aspect. I wanted to run her out of her stall where she had been training. Running against older mares, you have your doubts, but we felt that mentally it was the right thing for her.” Brinkman has bigger dreams for Alva Starr. “My words to Mr. Ladner were if we can’t beat these, then we don’t deserve to go to New York. So, we beat them and now we deserve to go to New York.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.