Churchill Downs: Delahaye wins Mint Julep with closing kick

Delahaye relaxed early and finished late with a powerful closing kick to score a 1 3/4-length victory over Heavenly Sunday in Sunday’s 48th running of the Grade 3 Mint Julep Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Delahaye, trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, ran 1 1/16 miles on yielding turf in 1:45.46.

This was the first graded-stakes win for Delahaye, who previously finished third in the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile (G2) behind Chili Flag and Coppice on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

Safeen led the field of eight fillies and mares throughout the early stages of the race through quarter-mile splits of 24.47, 49.70 and 1:14.16 as Heavenly Sunday tracked and Delahaye relaxed in sixth position. Midway around the final turn, Delahaye commenced her closing kick with a four-wide move. She entered the upper stretch widest of all, drove down the lane and caught Heavenly Sunday and Safeen just before the final sixteenth-of-a-mile marker for the comfortable win.

“All credit goes to Chad and his team,” Gaffalione said. “His team did a great job of getting her ready for this start. Today was her second race this year at Churchill, and I could tell I had a lot of horse beneath me. She was traveling very well throughout the entire race and turning for home she had a really nice kick. She’s been impressive in her prior races being able to show a lot of different dimensions in her running styles. I just try to stay out of her way the best I can.”

Delahaye returned $4.36, $3.60 and $2.58 as the even-money favorite. Heavenly Sunday, under Florent Geroux at odds of 3-1, paid $3.88 and $3.10. Safeen, with Luis Saez up at 18-1, was another half-length back in third and paid $6.16 to show.

It was another 1 1/4 lengths back to Be My Sunshine in fourth, followed by Misread, Fuente Ovejuna, Excellent Question and Immensitude. X Guanare and Devilsgotacause were scratched.

The $150,315 first prize jumped Delahaye’s earnings to $416,715 with a record of 6: 4-1-1.

Delahaye is a 4-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro out of the War Front mare Bella Carina.