Delaware
They’re off! New Delaware Derby highlights 2025 horse racing season at Delaware Park
Honor D Lady gallops to win in Delaware Handicap with Jose Ortiz up
Jockey Jose Ortiz ties record with fourth DelCap win.
It’s time to pull back the curtain on the 88th 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 16th 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 14th 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
Thomas Jefferson University is opening a regional campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Delaware, an effort that will result in the state’s first medical school.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders to establish the four-year program in partnership with the state. The other bidders were the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, Spotlight Delaware reported.
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The inaugural class of 40 medical students will begin instruction in July 2028. Initially, the campus will be based at the University of Delaware in Newark, with Jefferson faculty providing instruction. A permanent home for the campus is still being finalized, the Inquirer reported.
The medical students will receive 18 months of preclinical training on campus before receiving clinical training from healthcare providers in Delaware’s southern counties, where the state’s physician shortage is most deeply felt. That shortage is compounded by an aging population, Delaware officials said.
“Jefferson is committed to being part of the solution to Delaware’s physician shortage,” Jefferson CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said in a statement. “We are proud to help build a future where every Delawarean has access to the care they deserve. Jefferson is all in.”
The school’s creation is being supported by $157.4 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Delaware is one of three states without a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program. Since the late 1960s, Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have reserved seats for Delaware students.
“Sidney Kimmel Medical College has trained generations of physicians for more than 200 years, more than any other medical college in the country,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to bring our mission to Delaware’s patients and communities.”
Jefferson has announced several expansions recently. The university is establishing a full-time doctor of nursing practice-nurse anesthesia program and several online graduate programs at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Center for Healthcare Education in Lehigh County. It also is opening a satellite respiratory therapy lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown.
Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.
However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.
“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”
Students in the first class can get their tuition subsidized, covering all of their education costs, in exchange for an agreement to work in rural Delaware for five years.
Running the medical school is expected to cost Jefferson $78 million over the next five years. The money is from a federal rural health grant through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which congressional Republicans created in the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
The program will give $50 billion to every state over five years, though exactly the total each will eventually receive is unclear. Half of the money is to be distributed equally to states and the other half is awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on a variety of factors.
The state applied for $1 billion late last year to improve health care in Kent and Sussex counties. The Trump administration has so far allocated Delaware $157 million. Delaware is expected to receive at least $500 million over the life of the fund.
Delaware Ohio Housing Growth
A look at the rapid expansion of housing developments in Delaware, Ohio.
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Every few weeks Delaware city approves a new housing development. The city has more than 4,000 housing units in its development pipeline, contributing to the rapid growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in Ohio.
A crash shut down U.S. 42 in Delaware County in both directions June 2.
As of 7 a.m., U.S. 42 was closed from U.S. 23 to Jegs Place near the Delaware Municipal Airport.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the crash or when the roadway would open.
This is a developing story and will be updated
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
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