Jones has two for Governor's Day Stakes on stakes-rich card

Trainer Larry Jones will saddle one horse trying to turn back the clock to early 2015 and another striving to reach his potential in the $75,000 Delaware Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association Governor’s Day Stakes at Delaware Park on Saturday.

The Governor’s Day covers one mile and 70 yards and is restricted to horses who have started at Delaware this season but not in a stakes. It is part of a 12-race Owners’ Day program that is worth a collective $637,250 and features six stakes for Thoroughbreds and a Grade 1 stakes for Arabians.

Jones, who has won four stakes on Owners’ Day since 2007, will send out the coupled entry of the 5-year-old Albano and 4-year-old Etruscan in the Governor’s Day (race 11).

In the first three months of 2015, Albano dominated the $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam Houston and was beaten just a half-length in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds. His form has gone sour since then, with six straight races where he hasn’t come close to winning.

Jones has been encouraged by Albano’s recent workouts, including a five-furlong move in 1:00.40 on Monday.

“This work was a whole lot like his old self, so we are hoping for good things,” Jones said.

Etruscan, a son of Bernardini out of 2008 champion 3-year-old filly Proud Spell, has been part of the exacta in four of five starts at Delaware but ran fifth in his two stakes tries.

“He is Proud Spell’s baby, so we know darn well it is only a matter of time before he starts showing some of his good stuff,” Jones said. “He is kind of hit and miss. He is kind of Bernardini on me. You never know when the Bernardini will show up, but when he does, he runs pretty good.”

The competition includes last year’s Governor’s Day winner, Ain’t Got Time, who flashed speed and faded on a track that favored closers on July 16; Maryland-based Unbridled Lion, who makes his stakes debut after back-to-back wins going two turns at Delaware and Laurel; and Warrioroftheroses, who has won his last two Delaware starts by a combined 17 lengths. Warrioroftheroses is cross-entered in Saturday’s $200,000 President’s Cup on turf at Parx.

In the other stakes, four of which are restricted to Delaware-bred or Delaware-certified horses:

◗ Old Harbor and Inside Out, a neck apart as the one-two finishers in a high-priced optional claimer last month, and Catcha Rising Star, the wire-to-wire winner of the $100,000 West Virginia Senate President’s Cup at Mountaineer last time out, head a group of 13 fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on turf in the $75,000 George Rosenberger Memorial.

◗ The 6-year-old mare Galiana, 9 for 10 at Delaware, seeks to win the $75,000 Tax Free Shopping Distaff, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, for the fourth straight year.

◗ Howboutthemcowboys, coming back six days after finishing a close third in the Mark McDermott Stakes at Presque Isle Downs, and Castles in the Air, scratched out of that stakes, clash for the second time this summer in the $75,000 First State Dash for 2-year-olds going 5 1/2 furlongs.

◗ Cinco Charlie, whose seven stakes wins include last year’s First State Dash, faces just four opponents in the $75,000 New Castle at six furlongs.

◗ Haileys Flip was 29-1 when she beat Michaels Butterfly by 4 3/4 lengths on Aug. 27, but she will be a far-shorter price when the 2-year-old fillies clash again in the $75,000 Small Wonder at 5 1/2 furlongs.

◗ Paddys Day, a winner of seven graded stakes over the past two seasons and dominant in two local starts this season by a combined 23 lengths, heads the cast in the Grade 1, $50,000 Delaware Park Arabian Classic at 1 1/4 miles. He faces stablemates Rb Madymoiselle and Rb Nash, who were heads apart in the Grade 2 Delaware Arabian Derby going 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 20.