Woodbine: Delegation returns home as the one to beat in Durham Cup

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Delegation finished sixth after chasing the scintillating Game On Dude through most of the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 25. On Sunday, Delegation will be back on his home grounds and is strictly the one to beat in the Grade 3, $150,000 Durham Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up.

Delegation weakened very late under Luis Contreras in the Pacific Classic to be beaten 9 3/4 lengths by Game On Dude but just 1 1/4 lengths for second money.

“He was the only one besides Game On Dude who was really in the race,” said trainer Mark Casse. “The rest of them kind of sat back. Had he not chased Game On Dude, he probably would have been second.”

Delegation was flown to Churchill Downs after the Pacific Classic.

“I just gave him a little break, brought him back here, and he’s training really well,” said Casse, who conditions the Kentucky-bred 4-year-old for Gary Barber. “I expect him to run well.”

Delegation’s last start here was a 9 1/4-length wire-to-wire win in the Grade 3 Dominion Day, a 1 1/4-mile race on July 1.

The gelding also scored impressively in front-running fashion when making his local seasonal bow in the 1 1/16-mile prep for the Eclipse Stakes, but then was beaten a neck by Alpha Bettor as the runner-up in the main event after tracking the pace.

Contreras, who rode Delegation for the first time in the Dominion Day, retains the mount for the Durham Cup, which Delegation won last year for his first stakes victory.

Alpha Bettor was beaten a neck for second by James Street in the Dominion Day, but then captured the Grade 3, 1 1/16-mile Seagram Cup for the second straight time here Aug. 3.

In his most recent outing, the Presque Isle Downs Mile on Sept. 8, Alpha Bettor finished 10th of 11, beaten 7 1/2 lengths on the Tapeta surface.

“I’ve thrown that out,” said Danny Vella, who trains Alpha Bettor and is a member of the Bulldog Racing group which owns the 5-year-old Kentucky-bred horse. “He came back just a tiny bit muscle sore. He just didn’t handle the track.”

Alpha Bettor tuned up for the Durham Cup with five furlongs in a bullet 58.60 here Monday morning.

“His breeze was awesome, as good as a horse can breeze,” said Vella. “I wanted to sharpen him up. I didn’t really want him to go that fast, but he did it easy.

“He’s probably as good or better than he’s ever been.”

James Street, winner of the 2011 Seagram Cup and the 2012 Autumn, will seek his first win of 2013 in the Durham Cup. He was beaten a neck and a head when third in the Eclipse.

Rounding out the field are So Long George, who upset the Grade 2 Nijinsky on the turf here this summer, and Peyton and Awesome Overture, the one-two finishers in the 1 1/16-mile allowance prep for the Durham Cup on Sept. 13.