Inside Information, Royal Delta get seven runners apiece

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Fillies and mares will take center stage on the main track Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where a pair of Grade 2, $200,000 races serve as nearly identical co-features on a 12-race program.

Distance is the only factor that differentiates the Inside Information, which will be run at seven furlongs, and the Royal Delta, a slightly longer race at 1 1/16 miles. Even the field size for both races – seven – was the same when entries were taken here Wednesday.

Merry Meadow will be going for her fourth straight victory in the Inside Information (race 7). Trained by Mark Hennig, the 5-year-old Merry Meadow has been remarkably consistent throughout a 26-race career by finishing no worse than third in 23 of those while earning nearly $700,000. In her most recent start Feb. 14, she won the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie in dominating fashion.

“She’s on a roll,” said Hennig. “Sometimes you worry when it’s going to end, but she keeps doing so well. We talk about wanting to give her a little break, but she doesn’t act like she wants one.”

House Rules looks like the horse to beat for trainer Jimmy Jerkens in the Royal Delta (race 10). The 4-year-old House Rules has won three of her last four starts, ending with the Grade 3 Rampart in her latest here Feb. 21.

One new face to this championship meet is Molly Morgan, who makes her first start in nearly four months in the Royal Delta. Molly Morgan, now 6, earned $518,590 last year.

“We might have retired her, but with the Breeders’ Cup [Distaff] in our backyard [at Keeneland] this year, we thought we’d try to make that a goal,” said trainer Dale Romans.

Inside Information (1995) and Royal Delta (2012-13) both were Eclipse Award winners. The Royal Delta had been contested as the Sabin Handicap from 1991-2014 before being renamed for this year.