By way of Delta Downs, Old Homestead takes Lafayette at Keeneland

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Brett Brinkman, Thomas Pompell, Delta Downs – not the names you expect to be reading after a $400,000 stakes races on opening day of the Keeneland spring meet. But here we are after Old Homestead – call him the Delta Flash – led nearly every step of the Lafayette Stakes, running his career mark to 3 for 3 while posting a comfortable 3 3/4-length victory.

Pompell, a 49-year-old journeyman jockey who began his career at Fairmount Park and just concluded his fourth season at Delta in Vinton, La., ran his career mark at Keeneland to 2 for 50, adding the Lafayette to a race he won here in 2010.

Brinkman is based in Louisiana but was given seven stalls for the Keeneland season. Old Homestead was his fifth runner here and first winner.

The horse himself is no fluke. He debuted with an 11 1/2-length maiden win and followed that with an effortless thrashing of first-level allowance horses. After the second win, Pompell started dreaming.

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“I rode him two times and I said, ‘Brett, we’re going to have some fun with him,’ ” Pompell said.

The two front-running wins came over five furlongs on the Delta bullring oval. On paper, the Lafayette’s seven furlongs presented one challenge, the level of competition an even greater one. But when Old Homestead came to the furlong grounds, no one was challenging him. Old Homestead clocked 1:22.98 for seven furlongs on a track rated wet-fast and paid $21.80 to win.

“Tommy ranted and raved about how this horse had done things,” said Brinkman. “He’s a great little horse to deal with. We were going to have to go somewhere with him, so I figured we’d just come here. We had some other horses to come here with anyway.”

Surfer Dude outbroke Old Homestead, who left the gate from post position 3. Pompell said his mount pulled for his head in the first several strides but relaxed once he’d come inside Surfer Dude and taken the lead. “Then I could do anything with him. He just wanted to keep that other horse outside him.”

Old Homestead led by a half-length after a quarter-mile in 22.55 and was up by one length after a half in 45.97. He pulled away from Surfer Dude in upper stretch, belatedly changed leads with about a furlong to run, and was clearly best.

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Surfer Dude chased all the way and held second by one length over Osbourne, who had tracked the pace from fourth. My Prankster, the 7-5 favorite, also was part of the stalking pack and could make no late progress, checking in fourth. Money Supply, the 7-2 second choice who was starting for just the second time, turned in one of the better Lafayette performances finishing fifth. Money Supply broke poorly and raced from the back of the 12-horse field before making a decent run. Behind him came American Xperiment, Magnolia Midnight, All in Sync, Ignitis, Unified Report, a very disappointing 9-2 third choice Tejano Twist, and Barossa.

Old Homestead is by Overanalyze out of Pearl de Vere, by Songandaprayer. Doug Henderson’s Marablue Farm and Melinda Smith’s Pegasus Stud bred and own the colt, who was withdrawn from a 2-year-old sale before being sent to Brinkman.

Pompell worked Old Homestead before he debuted and knew the colt well. Brinkman could have reached out for a higher-profile rider but stuck with his jockey.

“He kept me on him, so that’s great,” said Pompell, whose Lafayette mount was pretty good himself.