Include Morning-Line Choice for MassCap

Three of the top older horses in the country, including Robert E. Meyerhoff's Include, a multiple graded stakes winner, headline the 62nd running of the grade II, $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap Saturday at Suffolk Downs.

Include drew post position two in a field of seven entered for the 1 1/8-mile contest. Include is the 7-5 morning-line favorite. Others entered are Pin Oak Stable's Broken Vow and Barbara Smollin's 8-year-old gelding Sir Bear.

Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey will pilot Include at 118 pounds. Jorge Chavez, who won this year's Kentucky Derby on Monarchos, is named to ride Sir Bear. Edgar Prado has the mount on Broken Vow.

Unbeaten in four starts this year, Include, a 4-year-old son of Broad Brush, is trained by Grover (Bud) Delp, who conditioned racing legend Spectacular Bid to Horse of the Year honors in 1980. Delp won the MassCap in 1976 with Dancing Champ.

In his most recent start, Include won the grade I Pimlico Special May 12 over favored Albert The Great.

"(Include) is the second-best horse I have ever trained beside Spectacular Bid, and I've had some pretty nice horses," Delp said. "He's got a lot of class. The way he ran down Albert The Great from the three-sixteenths pole in the Pimlico Special proved to me he was more than just a good horse."

Broken Vow, trained by Graham Motion, will break from post four as the 8-5 second choice. Six-for-eight lifetime, Broken Vow was a wire-to-wire winner of the grade III Ben Ali at Keeneland in his last start. Sir Bear, the third choice at 2-1, won the grade I Gulfstream Park Handicap in March, and then ran fifth in the Oaklawn Park Handcap.

New York-based Durmiente and three local hopefuls-Crown Noble, Personal Moon, and Sky Approval-complete the field.

Carded as the 13th event, the MassCap anchors a 14-race card, including the $150,000 James B. Moseley Breeders' Cup Handicap, the Old Ironsides Stakes, and the Keith Brodkin Memorial Stakes