Kathleen O. starts campaign

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Shug McGaughey knows his way around a top filly – and he’s treating Kathleen O. like one.

Kathleen O. has raced just once since incurring her first career defeat in the Kentucky Oaks last spring. That race was the Grade 3 Comely on Nov. 25 at Aqueduct, when she rallied from last to finish second by a half-length.

“The big races are in the summertime,” said McGaughey, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004 in his first year of eligibility. “I feel really good about the schedule we’ve had with this filly. It’s all been by design. Hopefully, this race Saturday will bring us along to the bigger races. When those come up, I didn’t want to be saying, ‘Well, I wish Kathleen O. was in here.’ ”

Kathleen O. will make her 4-year-old debut Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Royal Delta at Gulfstream Park. She’s the 7-5 program favorite in a field of seven fillies and mares in a “short-stretch,” 1 1/16-mile race that ends at what otherwise is the sixteenth pole.

Kathleen O., the first horse ever purchased by the Winngate Stables of 84-year-old Pat Kearney, opened her career with four straight wins, including three stakes here last winter peaking with the Gulfstream Park Oaks (and a 98 Beyer Speed Figure), prior to finishing fifth in the May 6 Kentucky Oaks at 4-1.

“She’d had four or five races pretty quick and I wanted to give her some time off,” McGaughey said. “I wanted to get a race into her before the Comely, but there wasn’t one.

She ran a good race, just kind of let the winner get away from her. I could’ve run her back in the Rampart [on Dec. 31], but I didn’t want to run her a flat mile. We knew this race was on the schedule, so here we are.”

Javier Castellano, who has ridden Kathleen O. in all her starts, will be aboard the Upstart filly from post 2. Her chief threat could be another 4-year-old, Classy Edition (post 5, Irad Ortiz Jr.), a Todd Pletcher trainee who is a close second choice at 3-2 on Pete Aiello’s morning line. Classy Edition comes off a career-best 96 Beyer in a Jan. 11 allowance romp at Gulfstream.

Midnight Stroll (post 3, Edgard Zayas) and Tap Dance Fever (post 7, Jose Ferrer), capable shippers from Tampa Bay Downs, help flesh out a solid lineup that also includes longshots Don’t Get Khozy, Jungle Juice, and Soul of an Angel.

McGaughey won the first running of this race with Fit for a Queen in 1991, when it was still known as the Sabin. The race was renamed in 2015 to honor Royal Delta, the threetime Eclipse champion and Hall of Famer whose 22-race career from 2010-13 netted more than $4.8 million.

First post Saturday is 12:10 p.m. Eastern, with the Royal Delta going at 5:06 as the 11th of 12 races. Partly sunny skies and a high of 78 are in the local forecast.

The next major date here is March 4, when the Fountain of Youth will be run as one of eight graded stakes.