Grade III-Placed Inspector Lynley Eyes Kent

Off a solid runner-up performance in an allowance-optional claiming race at Belmont Park, Inspector Lynley is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the $200,000 Kent Stakes (gr. IIIT) Saturday, July 16 at Delaware Park.

Stuart Janney and Phipps Stable's Inspector Lynley enters Saturday's 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-olds off a runner-up finish in a one-mile allowance-optional claiming race for sophomores June 3 on the Belmont turf. That day Inspector Lynley finished one length behind Strike Midnight, who followed that effort with a runner-up finish in the Manila Stakes July 4 at Belmont.

Shug McGaughey trains Inspector Lynley, who earlier this season placed third in the Transylvania Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select (gr. IIIT). As a son of Lemon Drop Kid  , Inspector Lynley would figure to favor stretching out beyond 1 1/16 miles for the first time.

While listed at 10-1 on the morning line after failing to place in his two previous starts—most recently fourth in the Stanton Stakes June 22 on the Delaware turf-—Brereton Jones' He'll Pay could be dangerous if he returns to the form displayed in his clear victory in the Rushaway Stakes April 2 on the Turfway Park Polytrack.

"He is doing good," said trainer Larry Jones. "We may have not had the best trip in the Stanton; he was parked behind horses for a long time, so he never really got a shot to make his best run. We are just hoping we can avoid that situation in the Kent."

The field will include starters for the top three North American trainers by earnings so far this season as Todd Pletcher will send out WinStar Farm's American Patriot, a son of War Front   who registered a three-length score in a June 25 allowance-optional claimer at Belmont; Chad Brown will saddle Paul Pompa's Converge, a grade III-winning son of Sidney's Candy; and Steve Asmussen has entered Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred Madtap, who finished second in a June 25 allowance-optional claimer at Churchill Downs.