Stephen’s Answer steps into stakes

There’s a Cinderella story brewing in Saturday night’s $100,000 Delta Downs Mile.

Stephen’s Answer was racing for a claiming price of $7,500 in August, but has disproved that worth in his last two starts and will get his first shot at stakes glory in the race for 3-year-olds and up.

The Delta Mile, which has had its purse boosted from $75,000 a year ago when former $10,000 claimer Mocito Rojo captured the race, has drawn a field of 10. The group includes stakes winners Double Star, Forevamo, McFeely, and Trevilion.

Stephen’s Answer has raced twice since being claimed for $7,500 on Aug. 30 by Empire Racing Stables and trainer Robertino Diodoro. He’s made both of his starts at Delta, winning a first-level allowance Oct. 10 with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 80 then a second-level allowance Oct. 25 to earn a new high Beyer of 82. Stephen’s Answer’s races both came at seven furlongs, which is a two-turn configuration on the six-furlong oval at Delta.

“He’s a nice little horse,” Diodoro said. “I think he’s definitely taken a liking to the bullring. I know my assistant and gallop boy say the horse is getting better and better. Sometimes you see a lower-level claimer get good for a while.”

The starts at Delta are the first time Stephen’s Answer has raced on an oval smaller than a mile. Speed has been his weapon, as he led throughout in both starts. In the Delta Mile, Stephen’s Answer again has a chance to control the pace when he breaks from post 2 under regular rider Quincy Hamilton.

“We’d like to get to the front,” Diodoro said. “If they want to come with us they can come with us. No change of plans. We’re going.”

Diodoro said Stephen’s Answer was claimed by Jason Bullard of Empire Racing Stables specifically to race at Delta.

“We were looking for horses for Delta near the end of Canterbury,” Diodoro said. “With his speed, we thought he would be a good fit.”

Late Nite Mischief is looking for his first stakes win off a series of close calls. He was fourth to Mocito Rojo in the $100,000 Evangeline Downs Mile in June, then ran third by a neck in the track’s $50,000 John Henry in July before finishing second in the $60,000 Frank L. Brothers at Louisiana Downs in September. He enters Saturday’s race off an allowance win at Delta on Oct. 19.

Trevilion owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, an 84 for his four-length win in the $100,000 Gold Cup, a mile race for Louisiana-breds on Oct. 12 at Delta. He could get an ideal tracking trip off Stephen’s Answer.