Wilmington, Del., June 14, 2025 – Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Madaket Stable’s Fondly cruised to an easy front running victory in the $300,000 Grade III Delaware Oaks at Delaware Park today.
With Irad Ortiz, Jr aboard, the Kentucky-bred trained by H. Graham Motion won by 3-lengths and returned $9.80 as the third choice in the field of nine. After cutting early fractions of :49.64 for the half mile and 1:14.66 for the three-quarter miles, the daughter of Upstart completed the mile and a sixteenth in 1:45.61 over a fast-main track. The 5-to-2 favorite Margie’s Intention, with Luan Machado finished second and it was another ¾-lengths farther back to Kinzie Queen, with Junior Alvarado, in third.
Fondly raised her career record to three wins from four starts with earnings of $339,200. She also won the Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs on March 15 before finishing unplaced in the Kentucky Oaks.
“I think she confirmed what we thought of her,” said winning trainer H. Graham Motion. “We knew we were asking a lot of her to run in the Kentucky Oaks, but it is tempting when you have the points. It is a shame that track came up the way it did. I think it was just a tough experience for her. But look, she bounced back out right after it, trained here for three weeks and some very good works. She is a very easy filly to train. She is a very straight forward filly. She is as talented as any 3-year-old filly I have had.”
For H. Graham Motion, this is his third career Delaware Oaks victory. He won the race with Sincerely in 2000 and with Fortune Pearl in in 2014.
“We had some great experiences in this race,” Motion said, who has 35 Delaware Park career stake wins. “We won this race for Larry Johnson who is no longer with us. We won this race with Michael McCarthy riding for us and we came back an won this race with his son Trevor riding for us, so we have had some great experiences with this race and at this track.”
