2010 champion two-year-old filly: Delightful Mary

For owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse, she was delightful. The racy chestnut daughter of young sire Limehouse was named Canada’s champion two-year-old filly at the April 1 Sovereign Award ceremony at Woodbine racetrack without having won a stakes race. However, it was her strong showing in the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (GI) on November 5 at Churchill Downs, third to the unbeaten Awesome Feather, that wrapped up the title for the Florida-bred.

Delightful Mary was one of the first purchases for the new owner/trainer team of Oxley, who won the 2001 Kentucky Derby with Monarchos, and Casse, Woodbine’s leading trainer by wins in 2010. Casse watched Delightful Mary work at the Ocala April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale and was blown away when the blazed-faced gal zipped two furlongs in :20 2/5. “She had one of the most remarkable breezes of any horse I had ever seen,” said Casse during Breeders’ Cup week. “I went to see her after the work to see how stressed she was and it was like she had not done anything.”

Casse told Oxley about the filly and warned the Kentucky horseman that the price would be high. Indeed, Oxley had to go to a sale-topping $500,000 to purchase the youngster. Casse took the filly to his Woodbine stable and patiently allowed her to learn the ropes of being a racehorse. The filly debuted on August 8 in a six-furlong maiden allowance and battled for the lead to the top of the stretch before pulling away to win as the 9 to 5 favourite under jockey Corey Fraser. Delightful Mary was even more visually impressive when she won the prep for the Mazarine Stakes (GIII) by eight lengths and went into that important juvenile race as the 3 to 5 favourite.

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The Oct. 9 Mazarine lured just five fillies and one of them, the imposing front runner Wyomia, trained by Dan Vella, was simply too tough for Delightful Mary to get past. She wound up second, 2 _ lengths behind the winner but more than seven lengths ahead of third-place finisher Poof Too.

Casse pressed on with his Breeders’ Cup plans for the filly and was encouraged when she had some strong training moves over the Churchill dirt. The Juvenile Fillies was Delightful Mary’s first race on dirt (she had only raced on Woodbine`s Polytrack) and she handled herself well as she stalked the pace from fifth-place, moved wide into the stretch to gather up thirdplace, just a little more than four lengths behind Awesome Feather. “I was proud of her that day,” said Casse. “It’s always tough when a horse changes surfaces like that but she ran well.”

Delightful Mary wintered in Ocala with Casse and took her first step towards a possible start in the Kentucky Oaks (GI) with a win in the OBS Filly Championship race at the Ocala Training Centre.

The dam of Delightful Mary is the winner Deputy’s Delight, who has been a marvel in the breeding shed for Hobeau Farms in Florida. The mare has had six foals to race and all are winners including millionaire Delightful Kiss, a son of Kissin Kris who won the Grade II Ohio Derby in 2007. Deputy’s Delight has a two-year-old of 2011 by hot young sire Bernardini.