The Saturday card at Delaware Park has held together surprisingly well, although shipping restrictions from other tracks in the Mid-Atlantic remain in place.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial, which has a field of 11, currently has no scratches, even though main-track-only Gotham Gala will come out unless thunderstorms force a surface change.
It is hot and humid in Stanton, Del., with a 40-percent chance of storms this afternoon.
The featured Grade 3, $300,000 Delaware Oaks has a field of six after Our Super Freak, part of a Jamie Ness-trained entry, was scratched. Jaywalk looms a heavy favorite in the 1 1/16-mile race for trainer John Servis.
In the third Grade 3 of the afternoon, the $200,000 Kent, a field of seven remains following the scratches of both halves of a Graham Motion-trained entry – He’s No Lemon and Shootin the Breeze.
The two horses in isolation at Delaware Park were both doing well on Saturday, according to John Mooney, the executive director of racing at Delaware Park.
The first horse, who has tested positive for the strangles bacteria, originally had a stiff neck, nasal discharge, and a temperature but is no longer displaying any of those symptoms. The other, who has tested negative for the strangles bacteria, according to Mooney, had a temperature but it has subsided.
Kentucky has dropped it shipping restrictions on horses from Delaware, according to Mooney, and horses racing there today, which include runners for Brad Cox and Ian Wilkes, will be allowed to return home.
As long as no other horses get sick, Monmouth Park shipping restrictions on Delaware will be lifted beginning next Saturday, according to director of racing John Heims. The Maryland Jockey Club, via a group text, said it will drop restrictions on Delaware beginning next Sunday.
The New York Racing Association has not yet announced when it will lift its Delaware restrictions but trainer Bill Mott is expected to send Elate to Delaware next Saturday to defend her title in the Grade 2, $750,000 Delaware Handicap. Others expected for the Del Cap include Blue Prize, She’s a Julie, Another Broad, Escape Clause, and Gotham Gala, if she does not race in the Dick later today.