After chasing the leader of the 3-year-old filly division, Thorpedo Anna, in her most recent races, Lea Farms' Power Squeeze drops in as the highweight in a field of seven 3-year-old fillies entered for the $300,000 Delaware Oaks (G3) July 6 at Delaware Park.
Power Squeeze will be returning to the track where she debuted and later broke her maiden in her third career start. That maiden victory Oct. 7 kicked off a four-race win streak that saw the Union Rags filly win two ungraded stakes and the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2).
Her streak ended in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs when the Jorge Delgado trainee finished sixth, beaten 16 1/2 lengths by Thorpedo Anna. Power Squeeze trimmed that margin to 6 3/4 lengths when finishing a rallying third behind Thorpedo Anna in the 1 1/8-mile Acorn Stakes (G1) June 7 at Saratoga Race Course.
The stretch-running chestnut shortens up to 1 1/16 miles in Saturday's race, where she will carry 122 pounds, 2-6 pounds more than her competition.
The other graded winner in the field is C2 Racing Stable and Stefania Farms' Mystic Lake, however trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. told BloodHorse the Mo Town filly will run in the Victory Ride Stakes (G3) July 4 at Aqueduct Racetrack instead.
Juddmonte's homebred Sidamara makes her stakes debut on a two-race win streak. Following a March 6 runner-up finish in her debut at Gulfstream Park, the Arrogate filly out of grade 1 winner Spring in the Air broke her maiden April 7 at Keeneland and then won an allowance race by 3 1/4 lengths on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill.
Jose Ortiz is named to ride Sidamara, and trainer Bill Mott already is thinking about grade 1 engagements in the future.
"She is doing quite well and developing nicely," said Mott. "We are hoping she runs well which will encourage us to consider the Alabama at Saratoga in August."
R. Larry Johnson's Audible filly Call Another Play, winner of the Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel Park April 20, enters off a third-place finish in the George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2).
Ringy Dingy, who races for the Estate of Peter Callahan and James Reiley McDonald, won the White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware as a 2-year-old. The Dialed In filly goes second off the layoff after being rank early and tiring to finish sixth in the Black-Eyed Susan. Trainer Danny Gargan is expecting better.
"She is doing really good and coming into the Oaks great," Gargan said. "In the Black-Eyed Susan, she ran a nice race considering that was her first start in some time and she did not have the best of trips."
Delaware Park, Saturday, July 6, 2024, Race 9Entries: Delaware Oaks (G3)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Regaled (KY) Forest Boyce 116 Samuel G. Davis 15/1 2 2Call Another Play (MD) Jaime Rodriguez 120 Michael J. Trombetta 8/1 3 3Power Squeeze (KY) Javier Castellano 122 Jorge Delgado 3/2 4 4Ringy Dingy (KY) Katie Davis 116 Danny Gargan 8/1 5 5Princess Indy (KY) J.G. Torrealba 116 Somraj Singh 15/1 6 6Mystic Lake (FL) Fernando Jara 116 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 3/1 7 7Sidamara (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 120 William I. Mott 7/2
