Normandy Invasion finishes second in return

Normandy Invasion came up a little short while making his first start in more than a year on Wednesday at Delaware Park.

Normandy Invasion, 5, has had two long layoffs in his career, with the first partially due to foot problems. His comeback Wednesday came after he underwent surgery to repair fractured sesamoids, an injury sustained while training last September.

Eight were entered in Wednesday’s second-level optional-claiming race, but the presence of Normandy Invasion resulted in five scratches.

When the gates opened in the 1 1/16-mile race, Our Caravan went to the lead, and Normandy Invasion settled off his hip. Alex Cintron, aboard Our Caravan, stayed about five paths off the rail in the run to the first turn and around the turn, floating Normandy Invasion wide.

After fractions of 24.08 seconds, 48.00, and 1:11.96, jockey Kerwin Clark asked Normandy Invasion to go after Our Caravan, and he did. He put his head in front nearing the quarter pole and opened up about three-quarters of a length entering the stretch.

Our Caravan wasn’t finished, however, and fought back, retaking the lead in the final sixteenth to score by three-quarters of a length.

The mile went in 1:36.76, and the final time was 1:43.08. Our Caravan paid $5.80 as the second choice. Normandy Invasion was sent off at 3-10.

This was Normandy Invasion’s first start for trainer Larry Jones. Owner Rick Porter turned him over to Jones after Normandy Invasion came out of a 10th-place finish in the 2014 Met Mile with a lung infection. He was training for a fall campaign when he was injured.

“It looked like he got a little tired, but it was okay, and the main thing is it looks like he came back good,” Jones said. “It will give us some things to work with now since this is the first time he ran for me. It also looked like when he made the lead, he pulled up like he did in the Derby. He made the lead at about the eighth pole in the Derby, and he started waiting on horses, sort of like he did today.”

Normandy Invasion finished fourth in the 2013 Kentucky Derby. Although he is not a stakes winner, he has always had a world of talent.

Last year, he finished second to Palace Malice in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap. In 2013, he was second to Verrazano in the Wood Memorial, beaten three-quarters of a length. As a 2-year-old, he finished second in the Grade 2 Remsen, beaten a nose by Overanalyze.

Our Caravan was returning from a layoff himself. He had not raced since finishing second in a Parx optional-claiming race in December. Our Caravan, trained by Michael Dilger, is now 3 for 9 in his career, with his biggest win coming in the $258,000 Calder Derby in April 2014. Wednesday’s race was Our Caravan’s first start since being gelded.

Our Caravan is the second horse in a week that Dilger has won with off a layoff. Mexikoma won an allowance race at Belmont Park on Sunday following a 13-month layoff.