Wilmington, Del., August 14, 2024 — After breaking her maiden impressively in her career debut, Runnymoore Racing’s Caprice followed with a dominating performance in the Delaware bred or certified $50,125 Blue Hen Stakes at Delaware Park today.
With Gabriel Maldonado aboard, the 2-year-old daughter of Golden Lad, won by 2 ½-lengths and returned $3.80 as the favorite in the field of six. The Pennsylvania-bred conditioned by Cathal Lynch battled through early fractions of 22.41 for a quarter mile and :46.96 for the half mile before completing the five and a half furlongs in 1:06.08. Onyx Ten, with Kevin Gomez, finished second and it was another 5-lengths farther back to Great Andrei, with Jeiron Barbosa, in third.
In her first career outing, Caprice broker her maiden by 13 ¾-lengths going five and a half furlongs at Delaware Park on July 20.
Joe Cassidy, racing manager for Runnymoore Racing, was eager to see if Caprice could follow with another solid performance.
“We were anxiously confident,” said Joe Cassidy, the racing manager for Runnymoore Racing. “We thought her first race was visually very impressive, but you do not know who you really beat in some of these maiden races. We thought there were going to be some tough fillies in this race and they were going to give us a fight and they did. We did like her in this spot though and after consulting with Cal (Lynch) we all decided this was the spot.”
The Runnymoore Racing operation is a team effort and the breeding on Caprice (Golden Lad- Grand Folly) was a well thought through process and a collaborative effort.
“We got to give Mrs. Bentley (co-owner of Runnymoore Racing) the credit for this,” said Cassidy. “She wanted a Maryland stallion for this mare because we like the Maryland program. It worked out really well for us to have a Pennsylvania-bred, Delaware Certified and a Maryland sire, so it is all good.”
For more information about the Delaware bred or certified program, visit https://www.dtha.com/dctp/.
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