Elate repeats in DelCap, eyes Saratoga return

Elate may be too valuable as a broodmare prospect to make one more start at a major racetrack she has never won: Oaklawn Park.

A product of two Oaklawn stakes winners and trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the 5-year-old racemare scored a repeat victory Saturday in the Grade 2 $750,000 Delaware Handicap. Next up, said Mott, could be a return to Saratoga for the Grade 1 $700,000 Personal Ensign Aug. 24. A seven-time winner from 16 starts, Elate scored two Grade 1 victories in New York as a 3-year-old and finished a close second to Abel Tasman in last year’s Personal Ensign.

“We would think about the Personal Ensign,” Mott said. “It seems that she’s doing very well. You’d have to like that race (Saturday).”

That could result in a rematch with 4-yearold Midnight Bisou, who defeated Elate in Oaklawn’s Grade 2 Azeri and Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap this year, both at a mile and sixteenth. The Personal Ensign, named for the Shug McGaughey-trained racemare who retired undefeated after the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, is nine furlongs, a more suitable distance for Elate. Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Midnight Bisou is being pointed to the mile-and-sixteenth Grade 3 Molly Pitcher on Saturday at Monmouth Park in New Jersey or Sunday’s Grade 3 Shuvee over nine furlongs at Saratoga.

Elate returned to Oaklawn this year after placing third in the 2017 Grade 3 Honeybee, which produced many stakes winners. Owned by breeders Claiborne Farm (Dell Hancock) and Adele Dilschneider, Elate is a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro and the Distorted Humor mare Cheery. Her sire gained his maiden victory in 2002 at Oaklawn for trainer David Vance and captured the 2003 Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap for the late Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel. Cheery, with Elate’s connections, won Oaklawn’s 2013 American Beauty for Al Stall Jr. in her final start.

* Break Even, a 2019 Oaklawn stakes winner for trainer Brad Cox, remained unbeaten in six starts with a one-length triumph Sunday in the

$100,000 Coronation Cup, a turf sprint at Saratoga. Making her grass debut at her fifth different track, the Country Day homebred clocked 5

1/2 furlongs in 1:01.59 with Shaun Bridgmohan aboard.

“We’ve had a lot of nice horses, but this may be the nicest we’ve ever had,” said winning owner Bob Klein, noting that “she’s been on the turf, slop, dirt, seven-eighths, five and a half (furlongs). She’ll do what you ask her to do.”

Starting her career at Fair Grounds, Break Even came to Oaklawn for the six-furlong Purple Martin in March, then won the Grade 2 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs in May. She scored a career-high 99 Beyer Speed Figure in the June 9 Jersey Girl at New York’s Belmont Park.

“Speed is her asset and she has a lot of class about her,” said Bridgmohan. “She’s a very classy filly. She runs on anything. … Whatever you put her on, she’s game.”

The Grade 2 $250,000 Prioress at six furlongs on Saratoga’s main track Aug. 31 may be next for Break Even, Klein said.

* Trainer Kelsey Danner scored her first Saratoga victory Sunday with Call Me Harry ($33.20), a New York-bred gelding by Street Sense making his career debut. Kelsey’s father is trainer Mark Danner, a longtime Oaklawn regular, and she is the granddaughter of the late trainer Harry Holcomb. Kelly Danner, her mother, worked at Oaklawn for several years.