Canada's Champion 2-year-old filly of 2010 Delightful Mary is scheduled to make her first start in more than a year Saturday, June 1 in the $150,000 Hendrie Stakes at Woodbine.
John Oxley's Delightful Mary won or placed in stakes in each of her first three seasons of racing, including a dead-heat victory with R Holiday Mood in last year's Ocala Stakes at Gulfstream Park, but the 5-year-old Limehouse mare has not started since an off-the-board finish in the Top Flight Handicap (gr. II) March 3, 2012 at Aqueduct.
Bred in Florida by Hobeau Farm, Delightful Mary was the sale topper, at $500,000, at the 2010 Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training, where she was purchased by trainer Mark Casse for Oxley. She wasted no time beginning to repay that investment by placing second in that year's Mazarine Stakes (Can-III) at Woodbine and third in the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) at Churchill Downs.
An earner of $501,277, Delightful Mary will try to secure her first graded stakes win Saturday in a comeback race that will feature the top two finishers from the Whimsical Stakes (Can-III) April 28 at Woodbine.
Acting Naughty picked up the first stakes win of her career in the Whimsical when the 4-year-old Offlee Wild filly edged Starship Universe by a head. John Hillier's Acting Naughty will start from the rail and Tucci Stables' Starship Universe will break from post 6 in the Hendrie.
$150,000 Hendrie Stakes (gr. III, race 8, approximate post time 4:25 p.m.) F&M, 4YO&Up, 6 1/2 furlongs, Polytrack
PP, Horse, Jockey, Trainer
1. Acting Naughty, T. Pizarro, 119, D. MacRae
2. Man Stuff (KY), J. Bridgmohan, 119, N. Gonzalez
3. Katie Get Excited (KY), J. Stein, 115, R. Griffith
4. Actionontwo (AR), D. Moran, 115, M. Doyle
5. Little River (KY), E. Da Silva, 115, G. Cox
6. Starship Universe (KY), J. Campbell, 115, N. Gonzalez
7. Heavenly Pride (KY), J. Campbell, 115, S. Attard
8. Delightful Mary (FL), L. Contreras, 115, M. Casse
Delightful Mary is scheduled to make her first start in more than a year in the $150,000 Hendrie Stakes.
