The Kentucky Oaks winner will be back on the track on Saturday afternoon at the Delaware Oaks, where a field of eight is going to be trying to take her down.
ODDS ANALYSIS
1: Hip Hop N Jazz (10/1)
2: Milaya (15/1)
3: Bar of Gold (10/1)
4: Danzatrice (8/1)
5: Lovely Maria (1/1)
6: White Clover (5/1)
7: Calamity Kate (12/1)
8: Peace and War (6/1)
Clearly, Lovely Maria is the odds-on favorite here to win the Delaware Oaks, and for good reason considering the fact that this is a much lower level race than the Kentucky Oaks was.
There isn't another filly in this field at better than 5 to 1 odds, though it is just as notable that 15 to 1 is the longest shot on the board, which is rare for an eight-horse field with an odds-on favorite. Of course, a lot of that could change by Saturday's post time, and we would suspect that one of the double-digit underdogs creeps up in the 20 to 1 range as a final price.
FAVORITE TO FOLLOW
How could you not follow Lovely Maria in this one? We're not all that fond of the fact that she hasn't been on the track since running at the Kentucky Oaks, but considering the fact that she was an easy winner there as well as at the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland Park, we have little reason to believe that she should struggle in this one.
Trainer J. Larry Jones made a conscious effort to point Lovely Maria towards the Breeders' Cup, and running her in June would have proven relatively fruitless in all likelihood, even if she did win one of the many Grade 2 or Grade 3 races.
Even winning here at Delaware Park isn't the end all, be all. Lovely Maria will almost certainly be headed to the Alabama Oaks from here, and that would point her towards the Breeders' Cup in the fall.
UNDERDOG TO WATCH
One has to wonder just how good Hip Hop N Jazz really is. She has only run two races in her career, a maiden race and an optional claiming allowance race, and she won both without much in the way of muss or fuss.
However, there's a big difference between running a maiden race and running here in a Grade 3 race against the Kentucky Oaks winner.
Trainer Thomas Proctor wouldn't have brought Hip Hop N Jazz here if he didn't believe she was a potential winner, though we would bet he would rather not run her against Lovely Maria.
ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION
And why would anyone really want to run up against Lovely Maria at this point? Yes, we're running into that risk of backing a horse based off of past performances instead of future returns, and a filly which has only been on the track four times in her career isn't generally one to trust.
That said, we don't see any other filly coming up here to challenge her when she kicks it into gear down the stretch.
As long as no rust sets in, which certainly hasn't been seen by her training sessions of late, Lovely Maria should win this race more than half the time.
Play Lovely Maria to win the Delaware Oaks
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