Joint Custody, Classic Giacnroll look to bounce back in Buddy Delp Memorial

A pair of 3-year-olds who futilely chased multiple-stakes winner Kid Cruz earlier this season in Maryland will look to regain their winning form in Wednesday’s $50,000 Buddy Delp Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park.

Joint Custody and Classic Giacnroll are among seven 3-year-olds going a mile and 70 yards in the sixth race at 3:30 p.m. Eastern.

Joint Custody, a two-time stakes winner at 2, will be seeking his first win in four starts this season. He was second behind Kid Cruz in the 1 1/8-mile Private Terms Stakes at Laurel in early March and third behind Kid Cruz – who went on to finish eighth in the Preakness – in last month’s 1 1/16-mile Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico.

Joint Custody’s trainer, John Robb, is 3 for 10 (30 percent) with 3-year-olds returning from a break of 31 to 60 days in a dirt route.

Classic Giacnroll, runner-up in the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes in January, has been off since finishing seventh in the Private Terms, 13 1/2 lengths behind Kid Cruz and more than nine lengths in back of Joint Custody. His trainer, Lisa Guerrero, is just 1 for 10 with horses returning from a layoff of 61 to 180 days in a dirt route.

The field also includes Ground Control, unbeaten in two starts, and Divine View, a romping winner in a $40,000 first-level optional claimer at Pimlico earlier this month.

Ground Control will be making his first start around two turns and racing for the first time in two months. He won his career debut sprinting on Aqueduct’s inner track and cleared his first allowance condition in a one-turn mile at Laurel.

Divine View snapped a four-race losing streak when he trounced four rivals going 1 1/16 miles May 8. Trainer Larry Jones shows a 3-for-12 record (25 percent) with 3-year-old last-out winners making the second start of their form cycle in a dirt route.

54-year-old track record broken

New York shipper Stormin Monarcho broke a track record that had stood since 1960 when he romped by 11 1/4 lengths in a $65,000 third-level optional claiming race Saturday.

The 4-year-old Stormin Monarcho, ridden by Alex Cintron for trainer David Jacobson, ran a mile in 1:34.85 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 106. The previous record of 1:35.20 was set by Ashlar in 1960.

It was the first outing at Delaware for Stormin Monarcho, who has won 5 of 20 starts and $192,568.