Tricky Escape splits rivals to take Robert G. Dick Memorial

Trainer Lynn Ashby, who trains both Thoroughbreds and Arabians at the Middletown Training Center in Delaware, sent out Tricky Escape to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park on Saturday. The win was the third graded score for 5-year-old Tricky Escape.

Tricky Escape benefited from a heads-up ride by Chris DeCarlo, who worked his way to the rail from post 7 during the first seven furlongs of the Dick Memorial, a 1 3/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares. DeCarlo split horses in upper stretch and Tricky Escape quickly drew off to win by 1 1/2 lengths.

DeCarlo has been aboard for all of Tricky Escape's stakes wins. She won the Grade 3 Violet at Monmouth Park last August and then concluded her 4-year-old season with a victory in the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill Downs.

DeCarlo won the 2017 Dick Memorial on 10-1 Guilty Twelve. Tricky Escape finished fourth, beaten 1 1/2 lengths.

Broken Bridle set the early pace on an open lead. Following a 23.89-second opening quarter, she was able to slow the tempo down through a 49.04 half-mile and six furlongs in 1:14.23.

Turning for home, Esquisse bid inside Broken Bridle, while Palinodie and Creative Thinking stayed to her outside. Tricky Escape broke the race open with a good turn of foot, and pulled away. She paid $10.40 in the nine-horse field and completed the course in 2:12.82.

Giovanna Blues finished with a late bid outside horses to get up for second, a length ahead of Palinodie. It was another half-length back to Broken Bridle in fourth. Creative Thinking finished a head farther back in fifth. Esquisse finished sixth, a half-length behind Creative Thinking.

Ashby, a breast cancer survivor, trains Tricky Escape for Jon Marshall.

Ashby now has seven wins at the Delaware meet, four with Arabians and three with Thoroughbreds.

Tricky Escape, a daughter of Hat Trick, is now 5 for 17 with earnings of $454,480. Ashby removed blinkers from Tricky Escape's equipment for the Dick Memorial.

Cape Henlopen: O Dionysus lowers course record

O Dionysus and Utmost vied for the lead for most of the 1 1/2-mile Cape Henlopen Stakes before O Dionysus got the best of his rival in the final sixteenth of a mile and inched away. He then lasted by a head over Vintage Matters to set a new turf course record.

O Dionysus has been reborn since trainer Gary Capuano switched the 4-year-old son of Bodemeister to turf in May. He is now 3 for 3 on turf, with his only loss during his last four starts coming in the Grade 2 Dixie, which was switched to the Pimlico main track.

O Dionysus, ridden by Alex Cintron, never relaxed in the Cape Henlopen while stretching out in distance from a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming victory at Delaware. He and Utmost set somewhat demanding fractions of 24.40, 48.62, 1:11.66, 1:36.19, and 2:02.60, but O Dionysus was still able to get his final quarter-mile in 23.33 seconds en route to a final clocking of 2:25.99.

His time broke Revved Up's course record of 2:26.46, which was set in June 2003.

O Dionysus paid $9.80 in the nine-horse field.

Vintage Matters raced within striking distance of the winner and Utmost throughout and finished willingly, although lacking the needed kick after a perfect setup. Utmost, who was making his U.S. debut, finished third, three-quarters of a length behind Vintage Matters.