Trainer Jorge Delgado enjoyed a magical career milestone when he saddled his first graded-stakes winner on last year's Preakness Stakes (G1) undercard at Pimlico. When Lightening Larry took over the lead in deep stretch and held resolutely to win the May 21 Chick Lang (G3), Delgado got caught up in the enveloping electric atmosphere of Preakness Day.
“It was a day I'll never forget. It was my first graded-stakes winner,” Delgado said. “You know how Preakness Days are. It was packed – the only thing you see is people. To hear all the people screaming and all the emotions during the race – when he went to the lead with all the people screaming – it will be a day I'll never forget.”
Lea Farms LLC's Lightening Larry, who is winless in three starts since his Preakness Day victory, is scheduled to seek a winning start of his 4-year-old campaign in Saturday's $75,000 Sunshine Sprint, a six-furlong dash for older Florida-breds at Gulfstream Park.
“He's been training really good approaching this race. I know he hasn't won since May, but he's had excuses. I know his quality,” Delgado said. “He might be a longshot in the field, but he's a stakes horse, a good horse and I think he's going to have a good 4-year-old campaign.”
The 32-year-old trainer hasn't lost an ounce confidence in Lightening Larry, but he also knows the son of Uncaptured doesn't owe him a thing after putting him on the map with horse owners and thousands of racing fans by winning on one of Thoroughbred racing's most important days.
“It's great that these horses are so kind. They make you look good,” Delgado said. “They are the only reasons you get known in this game. Without them, you're nothing.”
Delgado, who has achieved a strike rate of more than 20 percent since venturing to South Florida from Venezuela in 2017, has steadily improved the quality of stock in his stable, which now includes Super Chow, who has won stakes at Keeneland, Tampa Bay Downs and Gulfstream in his last three starts; Willy Boi, who awarded his trainer his second graded-stakes win in the Smile Sprint (G3) at Gulfstream in July; and up-and-coming New York Thunder, a son of Nyquist who has dazzled while launching his career with a pair of eye-catching victories at five furlongs on turf at Gulfstream Park..
Super Chow is being pointed to the Feb. 4 Claiborne Swale; Willy Boi is scheduled to be entered in the Feb. 11 Pelican at Tampa Bay; New York Thunder is slated to make his stakes debut in the March 25 Animal Kingdom at Turfway Park.
“I do have a lot of good new horses in my barn that will be running in the next three months,” Delgado said. “It's about to get exciting for me.”
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