Champion Royal Delta Targets Personal Ensign

Royal Delta claims victory in the 2012 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita Park. Photo courtesy of Eclipse Sportswire.
Besilu Stables' champion mare Royal Delta is the class of a small group entered in the $600,000 Personal Ensign Invitational Aug. 25 at Saratoga Race Course, but as we saw last year in this event, sometimes even class gets beat.
Brilliant but not insusceptible, Royal Delta missed victory in the 1 1/8-mile Personal Ensign of 2012 by half a length to 10-1 shot Love and Pride before going on to win the Beldame Invitational and a second straight Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. She carried 124 pounds, a highweight impost she will shoulder once again this season under regular rider Mike Smith. Love and Pride carried 114.
Royal Delta and Smith come off a second straight Delaware Handicap win. On July 20, the 5-year-old daughter of Empire Maker schooled four other starters with a 10 3/4-length victory in the 1 1/4-mile event for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. She drew post 2 in this year's Personal Ensign renewal; last year she left post 4.
While Royal Delta has lost at Saratoga more than she has won, she did take the 2011 Alabama Stakes by 5 1/2 lengths after running third in the TVG Coaching Club American Oaks.
Although Love and Pride has not raced since a fifth-place finish in the Ladies' Classic, trainer Todd Pletcher does have a contender to oppose the champ—July 20 Shuvee Stakes winner Authenticity. Padua Stables' 6-year-old daughter of Quiet American was entered in the Delaware Handicap but diverted to the Shuvee at Saratoga on the same day instead.
She won that contest by a length after running second in the Odgen Phipps Handicap to Tiz Miz Sue, who is skipping the Personal Ensign and will likely either run in the Beldame or Zenyatta Stakes  in September. Authenticity is a grade 2 winner; she took the May 3 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs by a determined head over On Fire Baby. Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez gets the mount from the outside.
Anita Cauley's homebred On Fire Baby comes back after a freshening, having not started for trainer Gary Hartlage since the La Troienne. One start earlier she won the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park, achieving that victory with a wire-to-wire score. She has been known to stalk the pace as well, as she did for her Honeybee Stakes victory in March 2012. The 4-year-old Smoke Glacken filly won the Pocahontas and Golden Rod as a juvenile at Churchill. She carries 118 under Joe Johnson from the rail.
Taking another ambitious swing at Royal Delta is Darley Stable's Centring, a 5-year-old A.P. Indy mare trained by Tom Albertrani. Fourth last time out in the Delaware Handicap and third in the Ogden Phipps, she is still seeking her first stakes score and will carry lightest weight of the group, 114 pounds. Javier Castellano rides from post 4.
Open Water, who races for trainer Eric Guillot and Southern Equine Stable, M. Smith, and Whispering Oaks Farm, completes the field. The 4-year-old daughter of Include won the Marjorie L. Everett Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park in May and placed in the Bayakoa Handicap and San Clemente Handicap last year, but after running fifth in the Vanity Handicap on June 15, has failed to transfer her Southern California form thus far. In two starts at Saratoga, she was sixth in a July 22 optional claimer and eighth in the Aug. 3 De La Rose Stakes.
The Personal Ensign is a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" race for the Distaff division.
LOVE AND PRIDE WINS 2012 PERSONAL ENSIGN INVITATIONAL
Photo courtesy of Eclipse Sportswire.
$600,000 Personal Ensign Invitational
Sunday, Race 10, approximate post 5:50 p.m. EDT
Mares 3YOs & Up, 31 1/8 miles (dirt)

PP

Horse

Jockey

Weight

Trainer

1

On Fire Baby (KY)

J. Johnson

118

G Hartlage

2

Royal Delta (KY)

M.E. Smith

124

W I Mott

3

Open Water (KY)

J. Ortiz

115

E Guillot

4

Centring (KY)

J. Castellano

114

T Albertrani

5

Authenticity (KY)

J.R. Velazquez

118

T A Pletcher