Delaware

They’re off! New Delaware Derby highlights 2025 horse racing season at Delaware Park

Published

10 months ago

May 14, 2025

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They’re off! New Delaware Derby highlights 2025 horse racing season at Delaware Park

It’s time to pull back the curtain on the 88^th season of live thoroughbred racing at Delaware Park.

A nine-horse field is scheduled to go to the post at 12:35 p.m. on May 14, the first of eight races scheduled on the opener of 75 live racing days through Oct. 11.

A lot of familiar faces will be returning among the jockeys and trainers scheduled to compete, but there are some schedule changes and a new stakes race that should add some excitement at the Stanton oval.

Racing schedule

Racing will be held weekly on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday for most of the meet, although there will be no racing on May 15.

Friday racing will be added on May 30, June 6 and 13, and each Friday from July 4 through Aug. 15. Two Sunday cards – on Sept. 14 and Sept. 28 – will also be held.

First post time will be 12:35 on each racing day.

Big new race: The Delaware Derby

It won’t rival the big one in Kentucky, but Delaware Park is finally throwing its hat – in this case a derby – into the ring with a new race that could attract some of the horses who ran in America’s most famous race on May 3.

The inaugural $200,000 Delaware Derby will be held on Saturday, June 14 as part of a card including the Grade III, $300,000 Delaware Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile test for 3-year-old fillies that is traditionally the track’s second-biggest race.

The 1 1/16-mile Delaware Derby could potentially attract some colts who ran in the Kentucky Derby and/or Preakness who could see a win in Delaware as a springboard to bigger 3-year-old summer targets, like the Haskell Stakes in July at Monmouth Park or the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in August.

The track will have several promotions on Delaware Derby Day, including T-shirt and hat giveaways while supplies last, a Delaware-themed derby and bonnet hat contest, special Delaware-themed cocktails served in commemorative cups, and kids activities including pony rides, balloon sculptures and face painting in the grove.

Delaware Handicap moves to fall

The Grade III Delaware Handicap, which has traditionally been run in early July, will be contested on Sunday, Sept. 28. The track’s biggest race will have a purse of $400,000.

The DelCap has also been shortened to 1 ⅛ miles for only the second time in its 88-year history. The race was contested at 1¼ miles – known as a rarely long distance for fillies and mares – in every year but one from 1951-2022.

Delaware Park officials shortened the race to 1 3/16 miles two years ago, and cut another 16^th of a mile this year.

The new date and distance could position the Delaware Handicap as a prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, which is also 1 ⅛ miles and will be run five weeks later, on Nov. 1, at Del Mar in southern California.

Leading trainer returns

The race for leading trainer may end on the opening day of the meet.

Jamie Ness has led in wins in each of the last 10 years, and 12 times overall. He has horses entered in five of the eight races on the May 14 card, while no other trainer has more than three entered.

“We have been doing this for 25 years and we have slowly built this up,” Ness told Delaware Park racing information coordinator Chris Sobocinski. “We are in a region that allows me to have strings at multiple tracks and still be able to manage it right. Delaware Park is the central spot, which is why it’s pretty much our home base.”

Ness has won at nearly a 25 percent clip over the last five years at Delaware Park, with an average payoff of $5.50. Last year, his entries won at a 30 percent rate on both the dirt and turf courses. He won 49 percent of the time with favorites, 23 percent with 2-year-olds, 31% with 3-year-olds and 28% with maidens and claimers.

In other words, every time he sends one out, pay attention.

Don’t sleep on this trainer

Greg Compton doesn’t have the sheer number of horses to compete with Ness, but he finished a career-high sixth in the Delaware Park trainer standings last year and is returning to Stanton after finishing fifth at the ultra-competitive meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, this spring.

“We should be coming to Delaware with between 40 to 50 horses that we think will help the program from top to bottom pretty well,” Compton told Sobocinski.

Compton has the potential to have two strong entries – Kinzie Queen and G W’s Girl – in the Delaware Oaks. He also trains Auto Glide, who won the $175,000 Battery Park Stakes at Delaware Park last year.

Other prominent trainers expected to compete in Stanton this year include Edward Allard, Lynn Ashby, Brett Brinkman, Keri Brion, Gary Capuano, Gary Contessa, Cathal Lynch, Graham Motion, Kerri Raven, McLean Robertson, Andrew Simoff, Michael Stidham and Karin Wagner.

Jockeys to watch

Five of the top seven finishers in last year’s jockey standings – Jaime Rodriguez, Julio Hernandez, Carol Cedeno, Jose Batista and Daniel Centeno – are scheduled to ride at least once on the opening day card.

A new rider to watch is Martin Chuan, who finished 14^th with 13 winners at Oaklawn Park this spring and has been riding recently at Laurel and Penn National.

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on X: @BradMyersTNJ. Follow us on Instagram: @DEGameDay

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Delaware

Some Delaware lawmakers question Education Department program cuts

Published

2 hours ago

March 4, 2026

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Some Delaware lawmakers question Education Department program cuts

What are journalists missing from the state of Delaware? What would you most like WHYY News to cover? Let us know.

The Delaware Department of Education has requested $2.4 billion in taxpayer funding for fiscal year 2027, a nearly 4% increase over last year. But members of the state budget writing committee expressed frustration about students’ poor academic outcomes and questioned some of the cuts Gov. Matt Meyer has recommended.

Delaware public and charter schools serve 142,495 students. Nearly 60% of that population are low-income, students with disabilities or are multilingual learners.

National test scores from 2024 show that overall student academic performance remained below prepandemic levels and the national average. Eighth-grade reading scores in the First State hit a 27-year low, leading Meyer to declare a “literacy emergency” last year.

Education Secretary Cindy Marten presented the Joint Finance Committee with a strategic plan to improve student success — the first time the department has produced such a plan in more than a decade, she said. It lays out priorities, including expanding early education, improving test scores and implementing a new hybrid school-funding formula to direct more dollars to low-income and multilingual learners.

“Everything in this proposal reflects our guiding promise,” she said. “Start with students, build for impact. Outcomes matter.”

The Education Department’s budget cuts spending for several programs. That includes slashing 80% of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative’s funding. The WLC, which was receiving $10 million a year, aims to support city students across the Christina, Brandywine and Red Clay school districts. Its budget request currently stands at $2 million, with the organization projecting that it will have an additional $1.6 million in fiscal 2026 carryover dollars.

Wilmington Mayor John Carney said he wants to review the group’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget, but with the Redding Consortium moving forward to redraw school district boundaries in northern New Castle County, the learning collaborative was more important than ever. Redding members voted in December to combine the area’s school districts into one.

“If Wilmington families are going to have a strong say, as they should, then the Wilmington Learning Collaborative needs to be part of it,” he said. “Particularly now, if we’re talking about going to essentially a county-wide school district, obviously the percentage of families that are from the city of Wilmington is lower, and so I just want to make sure that their voices are heard.”

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Delaware

Delaware education outlines boosts, program cuts – in a $2.5B budget

Published

14 hours ago

March 4, 2026

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Delaware education outlines boosts, program cuts – in a .5B budget

Delaware’s Department of Education has introduced its first strategic plan in a decade, alongside a proposed $2.5 billion budget.
The plan focuses on five key areas, including early education, teacher retention, literacy and funding reform.
A major school redistricting plan for northern New Castle County is expected to be delayed until the end of the calendar year.
Wilmington Learning Collaborative is one education program facing sharp possible cuts.

Delaware’s Department of Education unveiled its first “strategic plan” in a decade on March 3, as lawmakers sifted through its roughly $2.5 billion proposed budget.

That’s about one-third of the state’s draft spending plan, up nearly 4% from last year.

Lawmakers discussed those infusions – from reading support to early education and more – alongside some $22 million in various proposed program cuts, which could include lessened support for the Wilmington Learning Collaborative.

“It’s the first plan the Delaware Department of Education has had in at least a decade,” Secretary Cindy Marten said ahead of her remarks before the Joint Finance Committee. “There’s an opportunity here. This is not another initiative that we’re just going to layer on top of one more thing and one more thing. … We’re building on the capacity that’s already here.”

The department sculpted budget requests around five “building blocks” in this plan:

Bright beginnings: Expanding early education, with aims to raise early care enrollment from 25% to 40% by September 2028.
Safe supportive schools: Boosting teacher retention rates, with a goal to raise the three-year retention rate for all early career educators from 72% to 75% by June 2028, alongside reducing chronic absenteeism and more.
Great teaching and learning: That’s boosting early literacy, improving student achievement, growing graduation rates and college/career readiness. A key benchmark here is boosting third-grade reading proficiency from 38% to 53% by 2028.
Fair opportunities for every learner: DDOE leaders seek to implement a new public education funding model by August 2027, in step with the Public Education Funding Commission.
Families and communities as partners: The department intends to launch a family and community portal that enhances transparency and connection to learning tools, support and updates.

For Delaware state test scores, average English proficiency rates across all tested third to eighth graders came in at 41% in 2025, while math reaching 34%. Pre-pandemic 2019 scores remain around 10 points higher in each bucket.

On the Nation’s Report Card, scores released in 2025 revealed eighth grade reading scores had hit a 27-year low.

“It’s been decades where we have let that fall,” said committee Vice Chair Rep. Kim Williams, as statistics joined the budget hearing backdrop. “It took us decades to get where we’re at today. It’s going to take us some time to pull ourselves out.”

Literacy and Delaware’s youngest learners

The plan should sound pretty familiar.

Delaware’s “literacy emergency” has been an ongoing call from the Meyer administration. For Marten, a fixture benchmark is that third grade reading proficiency growing from 38% to 53% by 2028.

Alongside some $97.4 million proposed for state personnel cost, the department may also see one-time infusions of $8 million to maintain support for the “Literacy Emergency Fund” and $3 million in direct-to-teacher grants to fuel literacy gains.

Meanwhile, the plan calls for all K-3 teachers to complete professional learning in the science of reading, as mandated by Senate Bill 4 back in 2022.

The secretary also called early childhood education a “first priority” after a year of plan crafting.

Roughly $8 million in one-time spending could fuel the “Delaware Early Childhood Care & Education Alliance” next fiscal year. That’s a pilot “hub” to support child care providers across the state, while also fueling an estimated 480 additional seats in the state’s Early Childhood Assistance Program, per DDOE, or state-sponsored pre-K.

By fall 2028, the department aims to grow birth-to-five enrollment overall from 25% to 40%. She hopes a hub like this can simplify and consolidate the process for providers and families alike.

DDOE’s Office of Child Care Licensing has also been working to digitize electronic record systems to elevate the office’s public database, while tracking compliance and investigating complaints across Delaware’s licensed providers. A combined $2.4 million has been pledged to make it happen, in the last two years, and the department is aiming for launch this summer.

More investment lined budget spreadsheets, and lawmaker questions, as Marten and her team echoed back to their strategic plan. The department pledged to have regular, public reporting on the goals outlined.

After all, there’s much more to come.

Foundational funding change still in the works

To get anywhere, Marten said Delaware needs funding reform.

A one-time infusion of about $2.8 million is proposed to help launch a new funding formula, including support for public communication. So far, that pales in comparison to investment eyed by the Public Education Funding Commission’s hybrid model.

That model will tweak the state’s current unit-count system, while also adding a “weighted” approach based on student needs, as should be proposed to the General Assembly later this spring.

One commission work group projected a baseline infusion of roughly $70 million just to “hold harmless.” That’s allowing Delaware to launch a new formula, without taking existing funds away from school districts.

“That doesn’t bring us near adequacy,” said Commission Chair Sen. Laura Sturgeon, back in January. One independent research report recommended an infusion from $600 million to $1 billion in total.

While that infusion remains “the gold standard,” Sturgeon said, members think they can meaningfully implement the formula with less. She said a figure closer to $200 million has been in discussion, though nothing is final.

This reform will also likely be implemented in phases, if it clears the chambers above this JFC hearing room.

The next commission meeting is at 4 p.m. on March 16, online.

What didn’t make the cut?

The Wilmington Learning Collaborative was only listed on Meyer’s proposed DDOE spending plan as an $8 million cut.

The collaborative launched in 2022 under then-Gov. John Carney with aims to correct fractured education inside the state’s largest city, combating issues like low achievement, absenteeism and teacher retention. It fused across three school districts touching Wilmington – Red Clay, Brandywine and Christina – and pushed in programming and staff positions in about nine of their city schools.

DDOE initially described the reduction as “carryover” funds, aligned with recommendations from the governor. However, collaborative leadership said it likely wouldn’t shake out that way.

“We’re projecting a little less than $2 million carryover,” Laura Burgos said, moments after her presentation to the committee. That meets an allocation of $2 million eyed for next fiscal year, according to her presentation, compared to $10 million allocations in previous funding cycles.

“That’s still a significant reduction in total,” she continued. “But we’ll have a better idea as we reconcile the budget and see how far we go with our advancement of the STEM learning labs and better understand the number of students being served over the summer months.”

Burgos highlighted these projects and more in her presentation, while she expects more specifics on the funding cut impact to come in its council meeting, March 4.

In his questioning, Sen. Darius Brown pressed that the cut could end up being more than $6 million. In response, chair Sen. Trey Paradee said his committee could have more “conversations as a group” on those cuts, before final markup.

In Red Clay Consolidated School District alone, the collaborative fuels about a dozen teachers and five paraprofessionals, as the school board discussed in its February meeting. Burgos roughly estimated that investment at about $1 million in Red Clay.

Total impact is unclear, as local districts must consider covering positions in local budgets. The same is echoed in cuts to certain block grants.

The administration proposed cuts to a $2 million grant for substitute teachers and another $2.3 million for athletic trainers. Some districts will be able to pick up the cost locally, lawmakers noted, though the department was unable to speak to overall estimates Tuesday.

Sturgeon hopes coming reform will allow districts more flexibility for such coverage.

“What we’re moving toward is a system where all those positions will be able to be grouped together and then funded based on the priorities of the individual district,” she said.

Major redistricting effort signals further delay

The Redding Consortium – a coalition charged with improving education in and around Wilmington, as well as redistricting schools in the same boundaries – caught renewed attention in late 2025, as it voted to center planning on a consolidated district in northern New Castle County.

That’s a pending plan to convert Brandywine, Christina, Colonial and Red Clay into one school district, which would serve students from Newark to Wilmington and the suburbs north and west.

But that wasn’t the sole focus on March 3.

“Redistricting planning” has reflected about 1% of the group’s allocations in the past five years. Supports in student health centers, at $27.6 million, have made up 54% of that budgeting, while full-day pre-K support has seen about $14.8 million in the Wilmington area.

The consortium’s request this year remained consistent, as Majority Whip Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman said, at about $10.2 million.

But her colleagues should not expect a redistricting plan this session.

“Having reviewed the project scope, AIR’s best estimate for us is that putting together a thoughtful plan, with robust public input, will take the remainder of the calendar year,” the consortium co-chair said. “Again, we’re committed to delivering a robust proposal – but are very aware that students are in schools of concern every day and eager to see them better served.”

Olivia Montes covers state government and community impact for Delaware Online/The News Journal. If you have a tip or a story idea, reach out to her at omontes@delawareonline.com.

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Delaware

Attention Ag Insurance Agents: Subsidy issues subject of Monday, March 9 virtual Q&A with USDA Risk Management Agency – State of Delaware News

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

The Delaware Department of Agriculture is encouraging agricultural insurance agents to attend a virtual Q&A session with the USDA Risk Management Agency on crop insurance subsidy issues on Monday, March 9 at 2 p.m.

Crop insurance is a critical component of the farm safety net, protecting farmers from weather, environmental, and economic conditions that can result in low crop yields and income concerns.

The March 9 event is an important opportunity for Delaware agriculture representatives to receive answers and guidance before the First State’s peak planting and growing season begins.

“It is critical that Delaware agricultural insurance agents have all the facts before their clients make critical crop insurance decisions,” said Secretary of Agriculture Don Clifton. “In addition, we need input from crop insurance agents on the performance of the program in 2025 and how we can pursue more improvements.”

For the 2025 crop year, 318 Delaware policies received more than $3.45 million in Risk Management Agency loss payments out of more than 1,400 active policies statewide. In total, after all subsidies, Delaware policies received $1.03 for every $1 paid in premiums.

Agricultural insurance agents should contact Michael Lewis at michael.w.lewis@delaware.gov for direct meeting links and more details.