No Hap for Darlin's Delight

World champion Darlin’s Delight has been deemed ineligible to compete in Friday night’s Tarport Hap at the Meadowlands because she did not pass the qualifying standard.

After June 1, the qualifying standard at the Meadowlands for 3 year olds is 1:57, with a one-second allowance for racing on a half-mile track. In her last start July 16 at Monticello Raceway, Darlin’s Delight won under wraps in 2:00.2 on a “fast” track.

After that race, driver Yannick Gingras was quoted as saying, “We didn’t want to go any faster than we had to because she’s in the Tarport Hap on Friday.”

“It wasn’t like she couldn’t go more at Monticello—we just tried to give her the easiest race possible,” trainer Jeff Stafford told harnessracing.com. “She got in an easy bunch. Our plans were to go up there and go as easy as we could.

“(Meadowlands racing secretary) Tad (Stockman) did everything he could possibly do to help us,” Stafford added. “We had three options: get Monticello to put an interference on her card (because she hooked wheels at the three quarters with Princess Alysha and Stephane Bouchard), bring her back on Tuesday in front of the (Meadowlands) judges in an official workout in (1):58 or better, or get Monticello to change the track condition to “good” and obviously they’re not going to do that.”

Stafford said he did not want to qualify Tuesday because he “did not want to race three times in a week.”

Stafford, who trains at White Birch Farm in New Jersey, plans to qualify Darlin’s Delight Thursday and start next in the elims for the $400,000 Mistletoe Shalee July 28. He mentioned that there could be an upside to this situation.

“It could be a blessing—now we don’t have to go (1):50 this week and (1):50 next week. We can take her up there tomorrow and go what we want to go,” he said.

Darlin’s Delight sports four wins and one second from five starts this year. Her lone loss was in her first start of the year at the Meadowlands June 1, where she paced in 1:53.1. On June 17, she set a world mark with a 1:50.1 clocking in the Lynch Memorial final at Pocono Downs.

“It’s not the worst thing in the world because we weren’t even 100 percent sure going into Sunday (in the NYSS) if we were going to go Friday (in the Tarport Hap),” Gingras said.

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