Pioneerof the Nile's Dark Nile Wins Delaware Oaks Prep

OUR MIMS S., $50,625, DEL, 6-8, 3yo, f, 1m 70y, 1:44.47, gd.

1–#DARK NILE, 117, f, 3, Pioneerof the Nile–Royal Society, by

Bernardini. ($52,000 Wlg '13 KEENOV; $135,000 Ylg '14

KEESEP). O-WinStar Farm LLC; B-Blackstone Farm LLC (PA);

T-Arnaud Delacour; J-Joe Bravo. $30,000. Lifetime Record:

4-3-0-1, $63,980.[bullet ad=”dante-zanelli-mating-planned-by-dante-zanelli-bloodstock-kentuckyhorsesaol-com”][bullet ad=”taylor-made-tm-for-you”][bullet ad=”pa-bred”]

2–Browse, 122, f, 3, Medaglia d'Oro–Daydreaming, by A.P.

Indy. O/B-Phipps Stable (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III.

$10,000.

3–Dreams to Reality, 117, f, 3, Lookin At Lucky–Dream

Sweeper, by Salt Lake. ($32,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Gabriel

Duignan; B-Dr. Rod Orr (KY); T-Michael Dilger. $5,500.

Margins: 3/4, 4 3/4, 2 3/4. Odds: 7.10, 1.80, 15.60.

Also Ran: Miss Inclusive, It's the Truth, Valueable Charmer, Martini Glass, Midnight On Oconee, Clair de Lune, Lookout Sister. Scratched: Little Cyclone.

Dark Nile earned her first stakes victory with a hard-fought tally in Delaware Park's Our Mims S., a local prep for the GII Delaware Oaks July 9. Third on debut sprinting six furlongs at Tampa Jan. 23, the dark bay showed that added distance was no problem with an authoritative graduation traveling an extended mile there Feb. 14. Given a brief respite following that effort, she returned with a comfortable wire-to-wire allowance score over fellow Pennsylvania-breds at Penn National May 12. Let go at odds of 7-1 for this hike up the class ladder, Dark Nile raced between horses on the opening bend and settled in midpack as 'TDN Rising Star' Browse (Medaglia d'Oro) showed the way through a half-mile in :47 3/5. Launching a sweeping three-wide bid on the far turn, she set her sights on the leader entering the lane and forged past that stubborn foe to prevail in a close decision. The winner sold for $52,000 as a Keeneland November weanling and progressed to sell to these connections for $135,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.