Luv Your Neighbor got her long-awaited stakes victory in the Grade 3, $300,000 Delaware Oaks on Saturday. After running through a brutal gauntlet of near-misses, the 3-year-old filly finally made the most of a perfect trip for trainer Michael Stidham. “She’s run against the very best 3-year-old fillies out there,“ Stidham said. “It was just, when was there going to be the day that she was going to get her chance? Today was the day.” In five straight stakes defeats going back to December, Luv Your Neighbor lost by 1 1/2 lengths or less four times, including in the Grade 2 Eight Belles and Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra. With mild class relief at Delaware, she let others do the dirty work early, advancing to a stalking position under Luis Saez on the backstretch and waiting. “It was the plan,” Saez said. “We broke and she’s pretty fast, but we tried to cover up so she can relax. It was like my fourth time riding her. I know her pretty well and she kind of has that little move. We waited for the last minute to let her get going there, and she was much the best.” While Luv Your Neighbor sat pretty in third and 8-5 favorite Dazzling Dame led uncontested through a half-mile in 47.82 seconds, Jumping the Gun, the Delaware-based hopeful, was left with an impossible task while chasing in second. Jockey Julio Hernandez, who has ridden Jumping the Gun in all but one of her eight starts, described a sinking feeling aboard the Andy Simoff-trained hometown filly. If he didn’t challenge Dazzling Dame on the front end, the last-out Kentucky Oaks runner had every chance to skip away to a gate-to-wire victory. But if he attacked the front-runner and put her away, he was setting the table for Luv Your Neighbor. In the end, Hernandez decided to attack, and with an immense response, Jumping the Gun launched after Dazzling Dame, easily cutting into her lead and putting her away on the far turn. But after doing the work to put away the front-runner, she was hopelessly, inevitably powerless when Luv Your Neighbor pounced from third. “There was no kind of pace, and I think that cost me a little bit turning for home,” Hernandez said. “[Luv Your Neighbor] just sat waiting for her to come back, but she ran very well. I had to go get the pace early. Hopefully, they turn around for her and one day will be her day.” Simoff, who has been training at Delaware for nearly four decades, hoped against hope that Jumping the Gun was going to have her day at home. After coming up just short in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last time out, he and Imaginary Stables owner John Guarnere are still waiting. “As long as she keeps progressing, you get better, you can't really complain,” Simoff said. “Obviously, you want to win. She's teasing us.” In what may be the best race of either filly’s career, Luv Your Neighbor drew alongside Jumping the Gun and gradually tore away command, taking a short lead at the top of the stretch and pulling clear to win by 1 1/4 lengths. She completed the 1 1/16-mile race in 1:44.05 and paid $6.80 to win. One trainer’s frustration came alongside another’s breakthrough, and Stidham, who has already tested his filly against some of the best in the country, said it was a good feeling to finally get her a deserved stakes victory. With this one out of the way, the trainer also said he wasn’t afraid to step her back up the ladder. He credited her “constitution” for pushing through a busy campaign. The filly is sired by Constitution, giving the turn of phrase a second meaning. “Some fillies, you run them this many times against that competition and they shrivel up and you got nothing left,” Stidham said. “This filly’s been just really strong.” Jumping the Gun finished two lengths clear of Dazzling Dame, who held third after fading for trainer Brittany Russell. She was 8 1/4 lengths clear of the next finisher in a strung-out field of seven 3-year-old fillies. Savor It, a 140-1 longshot, was pulled up before the stretch and loaded onto an equine ambulance for further evaluation. For its 12-race Delaware Oaks/Derby card on Saturday, Delaware handled $8.6 million, shattering the previous record set on Delaware Oaks/Derby Day last year. That 2025 card featured 10 races and handled $6.3 million. Through 10 races today, the track earned just short of $7 million. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.