Teresa Z gets second career stakes win in Obeah

Teresa Z, the winner of the last year's Monmouth Oaks, turned in a strong effort to win the second stakes of her career in the $100,000 Obeah Stakes at Delaware Park on Saturday.

Three wide on both turns of the 1 1/8-mile race, Teresa Z took the lead turning for home and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths under jockey Daniel Centeno. Teresa Z paid $9.60 as the second betting choice behind 4-5 Tequilita. She was timed in 1:49.33 and received an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.

Teresa Z is now 4 for 14 for trainer Anthony Margotta Jr. and St. Elias Stable. She is Margotta's second stakes winner in two weeks, after Bronx Beauty won the $104,000 New Start Stakes for Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-old fillies at Penn National on the June 2 Penn Mile card.

Teresa Z was making her third start of the year in the Obeah, the local prep for the $750,000 Delaware Handicap. She was outrun in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland in her 4-year-old debut and then finished third over a sloppy track as the favorite at her home track of Monmouth in the Serena's Song Stakes on May 12.

You Know Too pressed early pacesetter Trace of Grace in the Obeah and challenged for the lead on the far turn. While no match for the winner, she finished second, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of 20-1 longshot Sneaky Betty, who lodged an eye-catching four-wide bid on the far turn but then flattened out.

Tequilita was sitting in good stalking position just inside the winner but dropped back on the far turn. She came on again in the stretch to be fourth, 1 3/4 lengths behind Sneaky Betty.

• In the race prior to the Obeah, Madame Milan, a 3-year-old half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, made a sustained run to win a first-level optional-claiming race going a mile and 70 yards on turf.

Madame Milan won by 3 1/2 lengths and is now 2 for 5 for trainer Arnaud Delacour and Lael Stables. Centeno was aboard.