Wilmington, Del., June 13, 2026 – After a string of solid seconds and a third running against the best of the division, locally-based Lael Stable’s Luv Your Neighbor notched her first career stake victory in the $300,000 Grade III Delaware Oaks at Delaware Park today.
With Luis Saez aboard, the Ontario-bred trained by Michael Stidham won by 1 ¼ -lengths and returned $6.80 as the second choice in the field of seven. Jumping the Gun, with Julio Hernandez, finished second. It was another 2-lengths farther back to the 8-to-5 favorite in the field of seven, Dazzling Dame, with Jevian Toledo, in third. The final time for a mile and a sixteenth was 1:44.04 over a fast main track.
Luv Your Neighbor raised her career record to two wins from nine starts with earnings of $474,271.
“She has run against the very best 3-year-old fillies and it was just a matter of time before she got her day and today was the day,” said winning trainer Michael Stidham. “Saez has ridden her multiple times and he has gotten to know her. In a couple of her races, he has kind of used her to be close to the pace. Today, he sat a little bit off of it and he made is move when he needed to do it. I have trained a lot of nice fillies over the years and this is one who has a constitution you would not believe. She is in good physical condition after a lot of hard races and shipping.”
