Jorge Delgado - Photo: Gonzalo Anteliz Jr.
As confident as Jorge Delgado was at the start of the Monmouth Park meet that his barn was balanced enough to enable him to repeat as the track’s leading training, he admits he was taken aback when Kelly Breen won with seven of his first nine starters in May.
It took most of the meet, but Delgado first caught and then passed Breen atop the standings over the past two weekends. Heading into the final two days of live racing for the 48-day meet, Delgado holds a 25 to 22 advantage in the race for leading training honors.
Breen has seven horses entered for the closing weekend – including five on Saturday’s eight-race card. Delgado has entered six, with three going each day.
“When Kelly opened that big lead at the start of the meet it caught me off guard,” said Delgado. “After the first three weeks that was a big gap, especially for this type of short meet. We knew we couldn’t make mistakes and that we needed to have the horses racing exactly where they fit.
“I always thought we had a chance to catch him because as the meet went on my horses were coming around and starting to race well and the babies were getting ready to race. We had to take it day by day and try to win every race we were in to catch him.”
Unlike a year, when Delgado edged Chad Brown by one winner on the final weekend to earn his first career training title, this year’s potential repeat turned out to be a daily grind of consistency.
It paid off with two winners last weekend, giving Delgado some separation for the final weekend.
“The two summers have been very different,” said Delgado, who began his training career in 2017. “Kelly does a very good job with his barn. It’s more lower-level horses and some allowance horses and he can run more often the way his barn is built.
“With Chad, it seemed like he would win every time he entered. It wasn’t easy. In the end it went our way. It was a great feeling to win it last year.”
A year ago, Delgado had 21 winners from 106 starters.
This year he has 25 winners from just 87 starters – with the win rate even more impressive considering the deep roster of the 2-year-olds he has.
At Monmouth Park alone, he has won six 2-year-old races from 20 starters. He started 16 different 2-year-olds over the summer.
“We had a lot of seconds with our 2-year-olds, too,” said Delgado, who hails from Maracaibo, Venezuela. “Our barn is always built on the younger horses. When we come to Monmouth Park we usually have a good amount of 2-year-olds and you’re lucky if all of them can run because 2-year-olds can have setbacks. They may not be ready mentally or physically.
“But this year we had a good rate of putting them in races and getting results. Hopefully, the best is yet to come for all of them. I believe all of them have a bright future and a stakes future.”
Delgado said he will fully appreciate a second training title if he can finish the job this weekend.
“It’s always meaningful to win a title,” he said. “It’s a reward for the hard work the team has put in into the meet and shows the consistency during the meet. It always feels like a nice reward after the summer ends.”
Delgado, who started the Monmouth Park meet with 60 horses, said he is considering having two divisions for the winter – one at Gulfstream Park, the other at Belmont Park.
“We’ll see. I haven’t decided yet,” he said.
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