Its not often that the winner of a Breeders Cup race shows up at Delta Downs in their next start, but thats exactly the case with Take Charge Brandi who claimed the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies earlier this month at odds of over 61/1. Now she returns in the Grade 3 Delta Princess Stakes to take on nine rivals in the mile race on the main track.
Almost by default, Take Charge Brandi has been installed as the 2/1 morning line favorite for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, forcing bettors to ask themselves how willing they are to accept such an odds reversal in just one race. In fact, bettors are likely left with several questions: how much did the BC Juvenile take out of Take Charge Brandi? Was she the beneficiary of a speed favoring track and a slow pace? Can she run back to back quality races for the first time in her career?
There’s plenty of logical reasons to be skeptical about Take Charge Brandi’s chances in the Delta Princess, but there’s still the remaining issue of which filly might be good enough to beat her. There’s also the intriguing potential problem of a speed duel between Take Charge Brandi and 3/1 second choice Vivian Da Bling who looks like an intractable front runner for trainer William Brett Calhoun.
Skipalute (6/1) ran second in the Grade 2 Matron at Belmont in her last start and will be racing around two turns for the first time. The Eddie Kenneally trainee has tactical speed and could pull the mild upset under jockey Corey Lanerie.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
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