Key race points out Rachel Wall, Kawfee Fa Marfa
There’s no better example of a key race than the first division of the Little Silver Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 26. The 1 1/16-mile turf race has produced four next-out winners from four starters, including Stormy Regatta, the winner of the $100,000 Riskaverse at Saratoga.
Rachel Wall and Kawfee Fa Marfa, who finished second and third in the Little Silver, will look to continue the string of next-out winners when they clash in the $75,000 George Rosenberger Memorial Stakes, part of a stakes-laden Owners’ Day program Saturday at Delaware Park.
The 12-race card, worth $503,000, includes seven stakes, four for Delaware-bred or Delaware-certified Thoroughbreds, two restricted to horses who have started in non-stakes at Delaware this year, and a Grade 1 event for Arabians.
The Rosenberger, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf, drew a full field of 12 fillies and mares.
Rachel Wall was making her turf debut when she missed by a nose at 23-1 in the Little Silver. Both of her wins came going two turns on dirt, including a 10-length romp in her lone start at Delaware.
“Her last race was pretty impressive,” said trainer Graham Motion, who also will saddle the 3-year-old Catcha Rising Star and the 4-year-old Empress Maker in the Rosenberg. “The filly that won that race came back and won at Saratoga. It looks like the grass will help Rachel Wall, so it looks like she will be able to run on either surface.”
Motion is just 2 for 23 over the last five years in non-graded turf stakes at Delaware, including horses who finished fifth and seventh in the Rosenberger.
Kawfee Fa Marfa, who won an off-the-turf second-level allowance at Delaware in mid-July, ships in from New York for trainer Rick Violette. She was beaten 1 1/2 lengths by Rachel Wall in the Little Silver but might have done better if she hadn’t had to steady during the stretch run.
The lukewarm 7-2 choice on the track’s morning line is Vielsalm. The Maryland-based 5-year-old is coming off a head loss in the restricted All Brandy at Laurel Park and is 0 for 8 on Delaware’s turf course.
The field also includes Take It Inside, returning just eight days after winning a second-level optional $40,000 claimer for New York-breds at Saratoga, and Acquant, who won a second-level optional $25,000 claimer at Penn National last time out for high-percentage trainer Alan Goldberg.
In the other stakes:
◗ Twocubanbrothers, a winner of four straight starter allowances, steps up in class to challenge a trio of horses with a combined 7-for-9 record locally – Our Caravan, Ain’t Got Time, and A. P. Cino – in the $75,000 Governor’s Day at a mile and 70 yards.
◗ Galiana, 8 for 9 at Delaware, tries to win the $75,000 Tax Free Shopping Distaff, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, for the third straight year.
◗ Jake N Elwood, who recorded a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure for winning his first start in 17 months, will be favored against five sprinters going six furlongs in the $75,000 New Castle.
◗ Patrick Rocks, third in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs in June and a troubled third locally in the Strike Your Colors, looks like the horse to beat in the $75,000 First State Dash for 2-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs.
◗ Lookout Sister, fifth when ambitiously spotted in the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga, returns to Delaware, where she won her career debut by daylight, in the $75,000 Small Wonder for 2-year-old fillies going 5 1/2 furlongs.
◗ F Sixteen, unbeaten in three starts, including a Grade 2 stakes by 18 lengths three weeks ago, will be an odds-on favorite in the Grade 1, $50,000 Delaware Park Arabian Classic Handicap at 1 1/4 miles.