Vergara, Alpha Bella are among 9 in competitive Robert G. Dick

Vergara should benefit with a cutback in distance when she faces eight rivals in the Grade 3, $250,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial at 1 3/8 miles on the Delaware Park turf course this Sunday. The race has been carded as the eighth race with an approximate post time of 4:00 p.m. EDT.

This year, the 5-year-old daughter of Noble Mission has run third in a pair of mile and a half turf stakes. On April 26, the Kentucky-bred trained by H. Graham Motion for Gary Broad was the beaten favorite in the Bewitch Stakes (G3) at Keeneland and in her most recent she lost the $250,000 Keertana Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 25. Her two wins the last two seasons have been at the distance of a mile and five sixteenths at Kentucky Downs. She has a career record of 17: 4-2-6 with earnings of $1,201,388.

“She is doing super,” said trainer H. Graham Motion. “After her last race, we kind of focused on this race. I like the fact this race is a mile and three eighths instead of a mile and a half. I have been questioning a little bit if she wants to go a mile and a half because her wins at Kentucky Downs have been a little shorter than that and that is why I feel good this race falls right into her wheelhouse.”

Motion has won the Robert G. Dick nine times since the race was inaugurated in 1997. Last year, he won the race with Sopran Basilea. He also won the race with Guilty Twelve in 2017, Real Smart in 2016, Caprice in 2009, Rosinka in 2007, Alternate in 2004 and 2003, New Economy in 2002 and Bursting Forth in 1999.

“I think we are bringing a nice one, so it will be fun to take a run at another win in this race,” Motion said. “We are having a nice run with the race and we feel good about Vergara chances.”

Don Alberto Stable’s Alpha Bella will be stretching back out after running second in the mile and a sixteenth $104,000 Miss Liberty over the Monmouth Park turf course on May 26. In her only other outing this year, the 4-year-old daughter of Justify won the mile and a half La Prevoyante (G3) at Gulfstream Park on January 27. Last year, the Kentucky-bred trained by Todd Pletcher was third in the Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs and third in the Tropical Park Oaks at Gulfstream Park. She has a career record of 14: 3-4-2 with earnings of $368,115.

“She has been a very consistent filly and she likes the distance,” trainer Todd Pletcher.