Quick Card field belies $50K purse

With a field that includes a horse who has gone 4 for 4 this season while moving from mid-range claiming company to stakes, another who already owns two stakes victories this season, and a third who captured a graded stakes at Gulfstream Park this past winter, the $50,000 Quick Card at Delaware Park has come up extremely strong.

The one-mile overnight stakes for older males on Saturday drew 10 horses, plus two also-eligibles.

As an indication of how competitive the field appears, the morning-line favorite is the New York-based Bailero at 4-1. Although Bailero's credentials include an appearance in last fall's Grade 1 Cigar Mile, 11 lifetime wins, and a high-percentage trainer in Richard Dutrow Jr., there are three or four other horses who on paper look even more appealing.

Reckless Ways was claimed out of a win for $18,000 in January by trainer Eddie Gaudet, and he has gone on to win three more races in a row, including the Harrison Johnson Memorial Handicap at Laurel with a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 101 last time out.

Your Bluffing's bid for three consecutive stakes wins in Maryland this year and six straight victories overall ended when he came up a neck short against Reckless Ways in the Johnson. He now faces softer company after failing to fire in the Grade 3 Excelsior Breeders' Cup Handicap at Aqueduct.

On Thin Ice delivered back-to-back strong performances at the Grade 3 level, just missing in the Fayette at Keeneland last fall and then winning the Hal's Hope during the first week of Gulfstream's meet. Trained by Joe Orseno, he has worked sharply in Florida since being given six weeks off following a pair of dull efforts in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream and the Challenger at Tampa Bay Downs. He must overcome post 10.

Others capable of winning include Play Bingo, who has been freshened since winning the Maryland Million Classic at Laurel last October; Speed Whiz, a winner each of the last two times he has raced at a mile; and Mach Speed, whose two best races this season came going a mile at Laurel.