Idiomatic emerges in stretch duel to win Delaware Handicap

Idiomatic, the 2-5 favorite, scored a hard-fought victory for his breeder and owner Juddmonte in the 86th running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Delaware Handicap for fillies and mares racing Saturday at Delaware Park.

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With Florent Geroux aboard, the 4-year-old daughter of Curlin carrying 121 pounds wound up in a thrilling, stretch-long duel and prevailed by a head over Classy Edition (5-2), the 4-year-old Classic Empire filly who was carrying 118 pounds including jockey Kendrick Carmouche.

“She has been training tremendously in the morning, and we have very high hopes for her,” Geroux said. “If she stays healthy and keeps on progressing, hopefully she will be a player in the distaff division in November.”

Behind the top two, it was another 9 1/4 lengths back to Morning Matcha (5-1) with Paco Lopez taking third. Royal Take Charge (13-1), Gamestonks (71-1) and Battle Bling (31-1) finished in that order from fourth to sixth.

The winning time was 1:56.41 for 1 3/16 miles on the fast, main track. The early fractions were 23.77, 48.40, 1:12.29 and 1:37.28.

Idiomatic returned $2.80, $2.10 and $2.10; Classy Edition $2.60 and $2.10; and Morning Matcha $2.10.

Previously, the Kentucky-bred filly trained by Brad Cox won the Shawnee (G3) at Churchill Downs on June 3. With the Delaware Handicap victory, she raised her career record to 9: 6-1-2 with earnings of $774,490.

This was the second Delaware Handicap victory for Geroux, who won the race in 2016 aboard I’m a Chatterbox. It was the first for Cox.