Grade I Delaware Handicap highlights
2017 Stakes Schedule at Delaware Park
Wilmington, Del., February 1, 2017 — The $750,000 Grade I Delaware Handicap highlights the 2017 stakes schedule at Delaware Park this season.
The mile-and-a-quarter filly and mare summer classic will be run for the 80th time on July 15th.
Last year, the Del ‘Cap was run as a Grade I race for the fourth time since 1989. Fletcher and Carolyn Gray’s locally-based I’m a Chatterbox posted a 2 ¼-length victory over Paid Up Subscriber. After winning the Grade I Spinster at Keeneland, the Kentucky-bred conditioned by Delaware Park-based trainer J. Larry Jones completed her season with a fifth-place finish in the Grade I Breeder’s Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on November 4th.
“It is always exciting when hometown connections win the premier race of the meet, but it is especially exciting when it is done by a world-class filly,” said Executive Director of Racing John Mooney. “I want to congratulate team I’m a Chatterbox. We are very much looking forward to her 2017 season. The Delaware Handicap has always been an important date on the filly and mare national stake schedule and I am sure the upcoming 80th renewal of this historic classic will continue the proud tradition.”
The supporting feature on the Del ‘Cap card is the $200,000 Grade III Kent Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile-and-an-eighth on the grass. The $50,000 Carl Hanford Memorial Overnight Stake, for 3-year-olds and upward at a mile-and-a-sixteenth, and the $50,000 Hockessin Overnight Stakes, 3-year-olds and upward at six furlongs, will also be scheduled as part of the card.
The local Delaware Handicap prep, the mile-and-an-eighth $100,000 Obeah Stakes, will be run on June...