Ay Caramba Wins Caesar Rodney for 4th Straight

Patricia Bozano's Ay Caramba easily won the $194,000 Caesar Rodney Handicap on the turf at Delaware Park Saturday over three rivals.

Ridden by Robby Albarado, the 5-year-old son of Roi Normand won by 2 ½ lengths and returned $4.40 and $2.20 as the 6-5 favorite. Mr O'Brien, with Mario Pino aboard, ran second. It was another 1 ¼ lengths further back to Cottage, with Jeremy Rose astride, who edged Keep Cool by a neck.

Greek Sun, Proud Man, Spruce Run, Dreadnaught, Private Lap, Blue Finally, Stormy Roman, Musical Native, and Tempered Steel all scratched.

Ay Caramba covered the nine furlongs over a firm turf course in 1:48.05. The Bobby Frankel-trained Brazilian-bred raised his career record to nine wins from 18 starts with earnings of $400,818. The Caesar Rodney was Ay Caramba's fourth consecutive win. In his previous outing, he won the Oceanport Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Monmouth Park on Aug. 7.

Albarado was impressed by Ay Caramba's kick in the last quarter-mile of the race.

"I thought Mr O'Brien was the horse to beat, so we followed him," he said. "When he kicked on, we kicked on with him. I was right behind him, and we did not try to make the lead too early. I tell you what – my horse was freakish from the quarter pole home. He was very fast and moving well within himself."

(Chart, Equibase)