Quint's Brew gets rare home game in New Castle Handicap
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Quint’s Brew will make his second start at Delaware Park, his home track, in the $125,000 New Castle Handicap on Friday. The six-time stakes winner is currently on the best run of his career and shows no signs of slowing down for trainer Ned Allard.
“He’s been good all year on me and he still is,” Allard said. “He feels great, he’s training well. I like his [far outside] post position. Let’s hope for the best.”
The six-furlong New Castle is the featured race on a 10-race Friday card that will feature two state-restricted stakes and four state-restricted handicaps offering a combined $650,000 in purse money.
In June, Quint’s Brew got to stay home at Delaware for the first time in his career and had an uncharacteristic closing trip in the $100,000 Alapocas Run. He and jockey Forest Boyce rallied from sixth to win by a half-length with a 91 Beyer Speed Figure.
Following that victory, the local star shipped to Monmouth Park and gave the reigning champion male sprinter Book’em Danno everything he could handle, coming up 1 1/4 lengths short in the $225,000 Mr. Prospector.
Back in Delaware, Quint’s Brew will be rematched against the Gary Capuano-trained 5-year-old Haileysfirstnotion, who finished a half-length behind him in the Alapocas Run in June. He has not run since.
“Quint’s Brew is hard to beat, so we’ll see what happens there,” Capuano said. “He’s coming off a break and a little layoff, but he’s training well.”
In the field of six, Capuano also entered the 4-year-old gelding Great Quality, who will return from a similar layoff after winning a first-level allowance in June.
Allard will be favored to take the feature at Delaware, but Capuano has the chance to dominate the card. The trainer is striking at 39 percent at the track this year and has 12 horses entered on Friday.
Small Wonder Stakes
The juvenile filly Cha Cha Baby will make her stakes debut for new trainer Butch Reid in the $125,000 Small Wonder Stakes. But in order to take the next step in a highly promising career, she must defeat her former Capuano-trained stablemates, Whitten Way and Martiniwithatwist.
“She’s a gorgeous filly and has just trained beautifully up [at Parx Racing] so far,” Reid said. “It’s interesting to end up against two of Capuano’s, but that’s the way things work out sometimes.”
In her second and final start for Capuano in July, Cha Cha Baby turned heads when she improved to win a maiden special weight at Delaware by nine lengths. Capuano put her in the Fasig-Tipton July 2026 digital sale later that month, where LC Racing purchased her for $460,000.
Both of Capuano’s fillies in the field of six have run against Cha Cha Baby before. In June, Whitten Way defeated her by 1 1/4 lengths before grinding her way to a photo-finish victory on a muddy track in the $75,000 Blue Hen.
“She didn’t like the kickback down the backstretch because of the rain,” Capuano said. “It got a little muddy and heavy, so she kind of dropped back. It didn’t look like she was firing and then she was able to finally get into gear.”
Martiniwithatwist finished 11 1/4 lengths behind Cha Cha Baby in July and improved to earn her maiden victory 10 days later.
◗ Capuano only entered one juvenile in the $125,000 First State Dash Stakes, but Westbound Cat is one of several last-out maiden winners who could take the next step in the field of 10.
In August, Capuano’s colt stretched out to a mile and won a $50,000 maiden-claiming race by 6 3/4 lengths. He will cut back to six furlongs on Friday.
◗ In the $125,000 Tax Free Distaff Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, Capuano entered two of the five runners.
Dwelling Legacy holds a slight class advantage over her stablemate Onyx Ten, but both will have to deal with Pure Lure, who will make her stakes debut off back-to-back allowance victories for trainer Mike Moore.
◗ The $75,000 Ogletown Handicap will also likely run through Capuano, who entered a pair of improving fillies prepared to tackle a mile and 70 yards.
Even if the undefeated filly Intrepids Fantasy, the only 3-year-old in the field of seven, scratches after another dominant victory on Sept. 5, Capuano will still be ready with Intrepid Mo, a 4-year-old coming off a sharp second-level allowance victory in August.
◗ The $75,000 Lewes Handicap will be Delaware’s only high-level event on turf Friday. Most runners from the $75,000 Sussex Handicap in August will likely return for a rematch in the main field of 12.
Understudy Kitty, the 6-1 winner of the Sussex, may scratch after shipping to Colonial for the $100,000 Bert Allen Handicap last weekend. That leaves Babble and Crabs N Beer as the key runners exiting the Delaware race.
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