Darlins Delight is a Breeders Crown veteran. The venerable five-year-old daughter of Bettors Delight will be making her fourth start in Crown competition, this time vying in the $352,815 Mare Pace on Saturday night.
At ages two and three she finished in the bridesmaid role on both occasions to My Little Dragon, competing both years - 2005 and 2006 - for $500,000. Last year at four, Darlins Delight was fifth to Moving Pictures in the $392,400 Breeders Crown Open Mare Pace.
Trainer Jeff Stafford harnessed the winner of $2,317,549 to a smart, second-place finish in her Breeders Crown elimination on August 22. Driver Yannick Gingras was in the race bike for owners White Birch Farm of New Jersey, and Stafford said all is well with his filly after her latest contest.
"She seems good and is acting normal, which for her, is being in laid-back mode," Stafford said. "Actually, she's laid back every day and doesn't get too over enthused about anything."
Stafford, 37, maintains a stable of 14 horses at White Birch Farm's New Jersey facility, and is stabling at Mohawk for the Crown festivities.
"We're at Mohawk this time," the Camden, New Jersey native revealed. "Usually, we stable at a farm, but most of them have been full up here this summer. We've got a friend with a farm with paddocks close by so we give her a lot of paddock time. She's really out more than she's in."
Stafford added that his mare doesn't require a lot of training and instead prefers to jog and take her time during her morning exercises.
"She gets a lot of jog miles," Stafford explained. "We might train her light - a very slow mile to get her muscles warm, but usuallly we don't train her when she's racing every week. Sometimes I let her walk for three or more miles and then I'll jog her. She's been on this same routine for basically all of her life.
"She's very laid back and once she gets under the lights she's all business. She'll look at things when she's jogging, just playing around. She's always feeling good. Warming up and training she always goes free legged. But when she goes to the paddock she knows that it's time to go to work.
"I can send her out with a three-year-old kid and she'd be perfect," Stafford added. "She's that reliable."
(Breeders Crown)