Drexel Hill ‘Where She Needs to Be’ for Saturday’s G3 Royal Delta

Nothing Like You Debuts for New Connections in Royal Delta
Damon’s Mound Tops Nominees to Gulfstream Park Sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Legion Racing’s Drexel Hill will bring Grade 1 stakes-placed credentials into Saturday’s $175,000 Royal Delta (G3) at Gulfstream Park, where the 4-year-old daughter of Bolt d’Oro is scheduled to clash with Shred the Gnar and six other older fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile feature on a 12-race program.

“I think she is where she needs to be. This is a really tough race on paper,” trainer Whitworth Beckman said. “Distance-wise, it might be on the short end of her spectrum, but hopefully she’ll get out there and have a good trip and make something of it.”

Coming off her first stakes victory in the ungraded Busher at Aqueduct, Drexel Hill made a name for herself at Churchill Downs in last year’s Kentucky Oaks (G1), in which she closed from 13th and last to finish second at 32-1.

“We knew she was going to run well in the race. She was training well up to that spot. We loved the mile-and-an-eighth distance,” Beckman said. “I was a little bit confused why she was that far back in the race. In the Busher, she was pretty far back but going into Aqueduct first time on that deep surface there …and there was a pretty decent pace that day.”

In the Oaks, Drexel Hill closed from eighth at the top of the stretch with a six-wide rally but fell 2 ? lengths short of catching victorious Good Cheer.

“Coming into the lane, I knew she was going to have to do a lot to get to the winner, but she put in a helluva effort to finish second that day,” Beckman said. “It was an incredible day, and an incredible day for Legion Bloodstock and me, especially, and we got something to build off of.”

Unfortunately, Drexel Hill exited the Oaks with a ‘slight issue’ that required time off. She came off a six-month layoff to rally from ninth to second in the Nov. 8 Mother Goose (G2) at Aqueduct. She enters the Royal Delta off a victory at Tampa Bay Downs in the 1 1/16-mile Wayward Lass, in which she was closer to the pace while five-wide around the turns.

“She’s a hard filly to predict on that. Early on, she was kind of really far back in some of her starts. I put the blinkers on and she was too close. I took the blinkers off and she was too far back. She always makes a move,” Beckman said. “In the Oaks she was way far back and she comes back in her next start and she’s three (lengths) off the pace…. I think she just adapts to the field. It seems to be like there’s nothing she needs to have to go her way for her to put in the effort.”

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who was aboard for the Mother Goose, returns aboard Drexel Hill.

Beckman, a former assistant trainer for Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Eoin Harty and Chad Brown, is campaigning at Gulfstream for the first time this winter. He has 15 horses in training at Payson Park.

Nothing Like You Debuts for New Connections in G3 Royal Delta

Twin Oaks Bloodstock’s 5-year-old mare Nothing Like You, a multiple Grade 2 winner that fetched $700,000 during Fasig-Tipton’s November 2025 sale, will debut for her new connections in Saturday’s $175,000 Royal Delta (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

Nothing Like You, a bay daughter of Malibu Moon out of the multiple stakes-winning mare Miss Derek, raced 14 times for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert exclusively in southern California with five wins, three seconds, one third and $567,160 in purse earnings.

Purchased from previous owners Georgia Antley Hunt, Jeff Giglio and John Rogitz at auction, she joined trainer Brendan Walsh shortly thereafter and had her first timed work on Christmas Eve at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

Nothing Like You has had six subsequent breezes, the most recent a bullet half-mile move in 48.95 seconds Feb. 4, for her first race since a popular 1 ?-length triumph in the one-mile Dark Mirage Sept. 20 at Los Alamitos.

“Once we got down here she came in, so we’ve had enough time with her. But, in saying that, there’s probably a little meat on the bone, too,” Walsh said. “We need to get her started, and this was the ideal spot without having to ship her anywhere. She’s been good as gold and she’s got plenty of class, so we’ll see.”

Nothing Like You won her last three races as a 2-year-old capped by the seven-furlong Desi Arnaz at Del Mar and 1 1/16-mile Starlet (G2) at Los Alamitos. She made five starts at 3, winning the Santa Anita Oaks (G2) and running second in the Summer Oaks (G2) and torry Pines (G3).

Last year Nothing Like You didn’t make her season debut until August, ran only three times and was entered in the November sale following the Dark Mirage.

“She’s pretty nice,” Walsh said. “She obviously had some decent form for Bob last year, and she’s gotten better. Her works since she’s gotten closer to the race have gotten better, so she should give a good account of herself.”

Nothing Like You drew Post 6 in a field of eight with jockey Jorge Ruiz and is rated at 15-1 on the morning line in the Royal Delta for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the main track. Grade 3 winner Shred the Gnar, a neck from being undefeated in four starts, is the 6-5 program favorite.

“It seems like it’s open enough spot,” Walsh said. “She’ll be competitive enough in there, for sure.”

Also with Walsh at Palm Meadows is 2025 Lexington (G3) winner and Preakness (G1) runner-up Gosger, a homebred of the late Harvey Clarke whose wife, Donna, has continued in the game. Named for former major league baseball player Jim Gosger, the 4-year-old colt has breezed three times since late January including a half-mile in 49.25 seconds Feb. 8, seventh-fastest of 40 horses.

“He’s doing good. We’re happy with him,” Walsh said. “We’re just bringing him along steadily. I don’t know where he’s going to go yet, but we should have an idea here in the next work or two.”

Gosger made his first two starts last winter at Gulfstream Park, graduating second time out in a mid-February maiden special weight going one mile. He won the Lexington next time out and nearly pulled off a 15-1 upset in the Preakness until caught late and losing to Journalism by a half-length.

From there, Gosger ran four times in five months finishing second in the Haskell (G1), third in the Fayette (G3) and sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) and Clark (G2), the latter Nov. 28.

“He had a good campaign and then we gave him a nice break and he’s come back good,” Walsh said. “He seems to really like it down here. He did plenty of racing there the second half of last year, so it was nice to get a little freshening into him.”

Damon’s Mound Tops Nominees to Gulfstream Park Sprint

Multiple graded-stakes winning 6-year-old Damon’s Mound, nearing $1 million in purse earnings, graded stakes-placed Great Navigator and fellow stakes-winner Rolando top the nominations to the $125,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint, a six-furlong dash for older horses Feb. 21.

Damon’s Mound, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, won Gulfstream’s six-furlong Sunshine Sprint for a second straight year Jan. 17, pushing his career bankroll to $924,005. Winner of the 2023 Gallant Bob (G2), the Florida-bred son of Girvin capped 2025 winning the Bold Ruler (G3) at Aqueduct.

Great Navigator beat fellow state-breds in the New Jersey Breeders Handicap last August, his sixth and most recent win, and was a last-out fourth to Mott-trained Knightsbridge in the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector (G3) Dec. 27. The 6-year-old owns three wins, three seconds and a third in seven lifetime tries at six furlongs.

Rolando, a 4-year-old son of Vekoma, has never been worse than third in six career tries at Gulfstream, three of them wins including the six-furlong Hutcheson last March which came just 13 days after a dominant allowance victory. The 2025 Petramalo Mile winner has been fourth in three consecutive stakes, most recently the Feb. 14 Pelican at Tampa Bay Downs.

Other nominees include Chilean-bred Con Compania, an 11-time winner including Gulfstream’s Mr. Jordan overnight handicap in mid-October; Jack’s Promise, last-out winner of a six-furlong Gulfstream allowance Dec. 24; multiple stakes-placed Life Is Precious; Neshume, a six-furlong allowance winner Feb. 7 at Tampa after running fifth in the Sunshine Sprint, and stakes-placed stablemate Pure Class; and Tour Player, who had a three-race win streak snapped when fifth behind Knightsbridge in the Fred Hooper (G3) Jan. 24 at Gulfstream.