Opening day at Delaware Park will serve as an appetizer for the main course that will soon follow.
After a five-month break, live racing resumes Saturday with a 10-race
card – nine for Thoroughbreds and the finale for Arabians – as Delaware
launches its 74th season with festivities that include carnival-type
activities and food in the picnic grove that overlooks the picturesque
paddock. But there will be a one-week wait for the first stakes action
and a little bit longer than that for the return of last year’s leading
jockey, Rosie Napravnik.
After Saturday’s season opener, Delaware will be dark until the
following Saturday, Kentucky Derby Day, when the Vince Moscarelli
Memorial, which could attract the millionaire sprinter Fabulous Strike,
begins a 22-race stakes schedule that will be highlighted by the Grade
2, $750,000 Delaware Handicap on July 16 and the Grade 2, $300,000
Delaware Oaks on July 9.
Napravnik, who became the first female to finish as Delaware’s
leading rider last year and followed up on her success by becoming the
top jockey at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, is currently riding in
Kentucky, where she will remain until after her mount aboard Louisiana
Derby winner Pants On Fire in the Kentucky Derby. Napravnik then intends
to ride full-time at Delaware.
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