Joint Return and Vero Amore are among the top contenders in a field of eight 3-year-old fillies drawn for the $300,000 Delaware Oaks (gr. II) at Delaware Park July 5.
The Delaware Oaks, at 1 1/6 miles on the main track, is race nine on a 10-race card that includes five stakes, one for Arabians. Post time for the Oaks is set for 4:51 p.m. EDT.
Main Line Racing Stable’s Joint Return, trained by John Servis and to be ridden by Kendrick Carmouche, won the one-mile Our Mims Stakes, a local prep for the Delaware Oaks, June 4. Earlier this year, the Include filly won the Busher Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack and the Calder Oaks at Calder Casino & Race Course.
Joint Return is a confirmed closer in a race with several stretch-out types that figure to show early speed. She is the 120-pound highweight; the other seven fillies will carry 116 pounds.
“I will always try to take advantage of getting a race over the track,” Servis told Delaware Park officials. “The Our Mims worked out pretty good for us. If I didn’t use the race, and it was a little quick back, I would be sitting on six weeks between races, and the Oaks would be her first time over the track, so the Our Mims helped us in a lot of ways. It got a race into her before the Oaks, and she got a race over the track.”
In the May 16 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, Joint Return finished fourth when Carmouche lost an iron early in the race. Vero Amore finished second in the Black-Eyed Susan, only a neck behind Stopchargingmaria at 15-1 for trainer Robert Reid Jr.
Swilcan Stables’ Vero Amore has since finished far back in the grade I Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park but has been training well as usual at her Parx Racing base. Frankie Pennington gets a return call.
Vero Amore pushed the early pace with success in the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan and should secure good position in the Delaware Oaks. The Mineshaft filly is seeking her first stakes victory.
Fortune Pearl makes her first appearance since finishing third in the Black-Eyed Susan fro trainer Graham Motion. Image of Anna ran second in the Our Mims last time for trainer Rick Violette Jr.