MATCH Series stakes add depth to Del Cap card

The four $100,000 supporting stakes on the Delaware Handicap card Saturday make up the third of five legs in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships. The competition started at Laurel Park, moved on to Penn National, and after Saturday will be headed to Parx Racing and Monmouth Park.

The MATCH races will be held as races 4 to 7 on Saturday prior to the race-8 Del Cap.

To be eligible to share in the MATCH bonus pool, a horse must start in three series races, meaning Saturday is the last time a horse can jump in if he didn’t race at Laurel or Penn.

In a twist this year, the turf-division races for 3-year-olds and up are being run at both route and sprint distances. Last year, the races were all sprints.

The first two legs, the King T. Leatherbury and Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup, were held at 5 1/2 furlongs and five furlongs, but Saturday’s Glasgow Stakes is 7 1/2 furlongs. The series will conclude with the 7 1/2-furlong Neshaminy at Parx and the 5 1/2-furlong Rainbow Heir at Monmouth.

The most straightforward matchup Saturday comes in race 4, the Dashing Beauty, a six-furlong dirt race for fillies and mares that will rematch Ms Locust Point and Bronx Beauty.

Ms Locust Point, based at Parx with trainer John Servis, won the Primonetta Stakes at Laurel by a nose, earning 10 points, then finished second to Bronx Beauty in the Penn Ladies Dash, earning seven more.

Ms Locust Point leads the overall series competition with 17 points, three more than Completed Pass, who will race in the Glasgow Stakes later on the card. Ms Locust Point is on top of the filly-and-mare dirt-sprint leaderboard by seven points over Bronx Beauty.

Ms Locust Point is very fast but couldn’t shake Bronx Beauty in the Penn Ladies Dash through a 43.52-second half-mile. It will be interesting to see if she can do so Saturday.

Race 5 is the Just a Kiss Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares. Dynatail won the second leg of this division, the Susquehanna Stakes, but has since come back to finish sixth in the Grade 3 Eatontown at Monmouth.

A horse to consider is Capla Temptress, whom Bill Mott ships in along with Del Cap favorite Elate. Capla Temptress has been facing much tougher company and finished sixth, beaten four lengths, in the Grade 1 Just a Game last time out. She was seventh in her prior start in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs.

Lift Up showed little while making her seasonal debut two weeks ago for trainer Michael Dickinson in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at Woodbine but fits nicely here off her 2018 form.

The Hockessin matches the graded winners Always Sunshine and No Dozing, both of whom will be making their first start of the year in a MATCH Series race.

Always Sunshine, who won the Hockessin a year ago, is coming off a high-level optional-claiming victory at Delaware for Ned Allard, while No Dozing tired while returning from a seven-month layoff in the Polynesian Stakes at Laurel for Arnaud Delacour. Both horses have a good turn of early foot.

The Glasgow is complicated because of its distance.

Completed Pass, trained by Claudio Gonzalez, will be coming back a week after finishing fifth to Pure Sensation in the Grade 3 Parx Dash going five furlongs. He has never raced around two turns or beyond six furlongs. He was not an original nominee to the Glasgow and was supplemented to the race for $1,500.

The distance does suit Just Howard, but he drew the outside post in an 11-horse field. The Graham Motion trainee is coming off a close third-place finish in the Prince George’s County Stakes at Laurel and before that was third, beaten three-quarters of a length by Catholic Boy, in the Grade 2 Dixie at Pimlico.

O Dionysus is in good form for Gary Capuano, but he will be cutting back in distance from a third-place finish going 1 1/2 miles in the Cape Henlopen at Delaware a week ago.