The Royal Delta and Baffle Stakes 2025
There will be a lot of eyes on The Fair Grounds for Risen Star Day as the three-year olds continue to sort themselves out. With 50 points to the winner a victory in The Risen Star pretty mush assures a spot in the gate on the first Saturday in May. I found a horse that caught my eye over at Gulfstream.
In The Royal Delta at a mile and a sixteenth on the main track I thought Dazzling Move was interesting. This newly turned 4-year-old filly moves to the Saffie Joseph barn and goes a longer distance for the first time. There appears to be plenty of pace in here at least on paper and this filly can sit in the garden spot just behind the speed and get the jump on any closers. Gulfstream can be a tough track for deep closers, and I think the red-hot Dylan Davis will have this filly in the right spot moving at the leaders at the right time. Anything close to the 9-2 morning line looks fair to me.
The likely favorite Grand Job looks like a nice one who benefited from the time off she received before moving to the Bill Mott barn but her two big wins were both wire to wire and the pace figures to be contested here so she could be vulnerable.
In the Baffle Sunday at Santa Anita I think Triple Diamonds can give probable favorite Scipio all he may want to handle and then some. This horse finished strong over two courses going shorter and now gets to go six and a half down the hill. In my opinion this looks like one who will love the down the hill course out there and run his best yet in just his third start.