Molly Morgan Begins Campaign in Royal Delta

Like a fine wine, Molly Morgan has gotten better with age.

On an upward trend since her career debut in 2011, the daughter of Ghostzapper will look to begin her 6-year-old season on a high note in Saturday’s $200,000 Royal Delta Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park.

Owned by Poplar Hill Equine and W. Cubbedge, Molly Morgan had modest beginnings. The Kentucky-bred went winless in three starts at two before breaking her maiden in a $50,000 maiden claiming event at Churchill Downs in her sixth career start. After spending much of her 3- and 4-year-old seasons racing in allowance company, the Dale Romans trainee had a breakthrough year in 2014, capturing three graded stakes and placing in three others.

“She always acted like she could be a good horse, and that’s why we never gave up on her and kept trying her,” Romans said.“We felt like, one of these days, she was going to have a breakthrough, and she finally did.”

That breakthrough arguably came in the La Troienne Stakes (G1) last May. Fresh off a solid third-place effort in a Gulfstream Park allowance on March 19, the mare proved that she did indeed belong among the nation’s top female runners, closing to get up for second behind multiple-graded stakes winner On Fire Baby in the $300,000 event and earning her first graded-stakes placing. She would build upon that effort in her next start, the Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) on June 14, turning the tables on On Fire Baby and running off to a 4-length victory. From there, she would win the Gardenia Stakes (G3) at Ellis Park and the Chilukki (G2) at Churchill Downs as well as hit the board in both the Locust Stakes and the Juddmonte Spinster (G1).

Molly Morgan capped her 5-year-old campaign with a third place finish in the Falls City Handicap (G2) at Churchill on Nov. 27, in which she was beaten just three quarters of a length by the winner and a neck by the runner-up Don’t Tell Sophia, who herself was the runner-up in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

“That was a great race for her,” Romans said. “We’re hoping she can get us a Grade 1 and get us to the Breeders’ Cup this year.”

After making 10 starts in 2014, seven of them in graded stakes, Molly Morgan was given some time off from the races following the Falls City.

“We just gave her a freshener,” Romans said. “There wasn’t anything wrong with her. We never even took her out of training. We just gave her a little time to get her feet back under her. She had a big year last year. I think she’s ready to go. I don’t know if she’ll win first time out against this stiff competition, but we’re going to give her a chance.”

After what the mare showed him in her fourth season of racing, Romans is excited about what lies ahead for his blossoming trainee.

“You’d have to say that [she’s improving with age],” Romans said. “I think that’s part of that pedigree with the Ghostzapper. She’s just getting better and better.”

The David Fawkes-trained Sheer Drama is another mare who has found greater success as she’s gotten older. A half-sibling to 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) winner Big Drama, the 5-year-old daughter of Burning Roma won her first stakes event in 2014, taking the Thirty Eight Go Go Stakes by three lengths at Laurel Park on Sept. 9. The chestnut most recently finished second in the Rampart (G3) at Gulfstream on Feb. 21.

“She came out of the race really good, and we worked her the other day,” said Fawkes, who took over the mare’s training last fall.“She had a fabulous work, a bullet five-eighths (5 furlongs in 1:00.05). She’s eating good, training forward; I couldn’t ask her to be doing any better.”

The Royal Delta will be Sheer Drama’s first start for Fawkes in which she is asked to run farther than a mile.

 “She may be a little better around two turns,” Fawkes noted.“Her first [start for me] was seven eighths; her last was a flat mile; and this one is a mile and a sixteenth. I don’t think the short stretch will hurt her.”

House Rules, the Rampart winner, will also return in the Royal Delta. The 4-year-old daughter of Distorted Humor will look for her third straight stakes victory after also capturing the Bal Harbour Handicap at Gulfstream on Jan. 2. Tiz Windy, winner of the Indiana Oaks (G2) last October, is also among the Royal Delta entrants. A 4-year-old daughter of Tiznow, she has not raced since finishing fifth in the Falls City, a length behind Molly Morgan.

Trainer Marty Wolfson entered the duo of Swinger’s Party and Flores Island in the Royal Delta. Swinger’s Party most recently finished third in the Wayward Lass Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 14, the same day Flores Island was the runner-up in Laurel Park’s Maryland Racing Media Stakes. The field is rounded out by the stakes-placed Oasis at Midnight, the Rampart’s fourth-place finisher.

Source: Gulfstream Park