It's Isola Piu Bella vs. Two Trail Sioux

Chilean import Isola Piu Bella and the speedy Kentucky shipper Two Trail Sioux head a group of six graded stakes winners entered Wednesday for this weekend's Delaware Handicap.

A track-record purse of $1 million lured 12 older fillies and mares for the 68th running of the 1 1/4-mile Del Cap, the biggest field since 13 horses ran in 1999.

Both the , which goes as race 11 at 5:44 p.m. Eastern, and the Grade 3, $300,000 Leonard Richards Stakes for 3-year-olds (race 10, 5:13 p.m.) will be televised on ESPN2.

Three of the connections to Isola Piu Bella, winner of the Grade 3 Sabin Handicap at Gulfstream Park and the Grade 3 Sixty Sails Handicap at Hawthorne, have previously won the Del Cap, but separately.

Trainer Todd Pletcher saddled Irving's Baby to win the 2001 edition of Delaware Park's most prestigious race. Samaya Us Stables, the owner of Isola Piu Bella, captured the 2003 Del Cap with the Bobby Frankel-trained Wild Spirit. John Velazquez, who is 2 for 3 aboard Isola Piu Bella, rode Summer Colony to victory in 2002.

Isola Piu Bella, a multiple Group 1 winner in Chile, made her North American debut in January following a layoff of more than a year. She is 3 for 4 since February, including a victory in the local prep for the Del Cap, the Obeah Handicap on June 18.

Two Trail Sioux, who won last month's Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs by leading wire to wire, will likely vie for favoritism with Isola Piu Bella. Trained by Wally Dollase, she has won 4 of 5 starts this season.

The others with graded stakes wins on their resumes are Island Sand, who captured the Grade 1 Acorn at 3; Personal Legend, a Frankel-trained mare who took the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Aqueduct last November; Silmaril, the Maryland-based filly who upset Ashado in the Grade 3 Pimlico BC Distaff Handicap on the Preakness undercard; and Friel's for Real, a 10-time winner who took the 2004 Pimlico BC Distaff.

Others with solid credentials include Becky in Pink, beaten just two lengths by Isola Piu Bella in the Obeah; Saintliness, a close second in the Grade 3 Next Move Handicap at Aqueduct in March; and India Halo, second in a Group 1 race in her native Argentina last season.

* Three of the top five finishers from the Preakness - runner-up Scrappy T, fourth-place Sun King, and fifth-place High Limit - top a group of seven 3-year-olds in the 1 1/16-mile Richards.