Ness positioned for quick start at Delaware meet
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Delaware Park will kick off its 89th season of live racing with an eight-race card Wednesday. Jamie Ness, who won his 11th straight training title at the track last year, has four horses entered, including the morning-line favorites in the first three races.
“That’s always good,” Ness said, laughing. “We’re in a good spot that way. We’ve been at Delaware for quite a few years now. I live in Maryland, but it’s the closest, kind of my home track.”
After striking at a 40 percent clip for most of the season at Delaware, Ness wrapped up his 2025 campaign at the track with 72 wins from 200 starts. Bruce Kravets was second with 21 wins.
With 13 training titles overall at Delaware, Ness’s dominance cannot be overstated.
“When I first came to the Mid-Atlantic, I fell in love with the place,” Ness said. “It’s very traditional, not too many people saying anything bad about Delaware Park.”
In the first race on the card, a $7,500 claiming race for fillies and mares, Ness entered Luminous Secret, who is coming off a 3 3/4-length claiming victory at Parx Racing last month.
While Ness goes about his business, striking early and often at home, Graham Motion is looking ahead to when Delaware’s turf course opens later this month. The prolific trainer has won a record 55 stakes at Delaware, including 10 editions of the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial, a 1 3/8-mile turf race that will be moved up to June 13 and run on the Delaware Derby card this year.
“First of all, I’m incredibly lucky to have such nice horses,” Motion said. “It’s easy to get complacent about competing in those races every year. I’m very fortunate to have those kinds of horses.”
Motion felt especially honored to draw comparisons to the late Jonathan Sheppard, who gave him his start in the 1980s. Sheppard won 22 stakes at Delaware and earned his 3,000th victory at the track.
“I think it’s something he would be very proud of,” Motion said. “I came up under him, spent most afternoons in the summer racing over to Delaware to watch the horses run. He always kept a group there, and it’s always been an important part of our operation.”
Last year, Motion kicked off his stakes success at Delaware in mid-June, when Fondly bounced back from a poor start in the Kentucky Oaks to win the Delaware Oaks in gate-to-wire fashion.
In July, Marksman Queen brought Motion his 10th victory in the Dick Memorial, and Soleil Volant got his long-awaited breakthrough in September, winning the $150,000 Kent.
Delaware will hold two days of racing on Wednesday and Saturday in its first week. Racing will typically be held on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in May and June. A special Friday card will be added May 29.
Saturday, June 13, will mark the second running of the Delaware Derby, which ran alongside the Delaware Oaks in a smashing day for the track last year. This year’s card will feature six stakes offering $1.3 million in purse money.
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