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TDN: Delightful Joy Wins Impressively at Gulfstream

Just about 3 1/2 years ago, a filly called Dayatthespa, debuted with a resounding four-length victory over the Saratoga lawn. The filly took her ownership group, which included Pete Bradley’s Bradley Thoroughbreds partnership, on the ride of a lifetime, with stops in the winner’s circle after the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly/Mare Turf and Eclipse Award acceptance speeches. The ride concluded when the mare sold for $2.1-million at last year’s Fasig-Tipton November sale.

While Bradley said it might be too much to hope for to have another star of Dayatthespa’s stature, he did admit he was very impressed with Sunday’s debut effort of another Bradley Thoroughbreds runner, Delightful Joy.

“When they are that wide turning for home, you start thinking, ‘OK, we’ll be happy with third or fourth,” Bradley said. “So for her to go on and win like that was really impressive.”

Bradley purchased Delightful Joy for $105,000 at last year’s OBS April sale after the filly had worked a quarter in :21.3.

“We all know that anything by Tapit has a license to be a runner,” Bradley said of his initial attraction to the filly.

“She was a little backward at OBS,” he continued. “She worked well, but not super fast, and then she galloped out really well and really used herself well. And when you are working on a budget, those are the kind that you have to look for–not that she didn’t work fast, but she didn’t have that blazing fast work.”

Delightful Joy was in training at Saratoga last summer before trainer Chad Brown decided to call time out.

“She was with Chad over the summer at Saratoga and he called me up and said we should just kick her out for a few months,” Bradley explained. “She was just a little immature and we decided to give her some time. Then about two weeks ago after she worked, he called me and said, ‘I think she’s ready.’ Chad can be prone to the understatement.”

Bradley said patience has been the key to success so far with Delightful Joy and he expects to keep to that game plan going forward.

“We’ll just regroup from here, see how she comes out of the race and let Chad decide what is next,” he said. “We’ve gotten this far by letting the horse tell us what she wants to do. But I think she proved she is a very promising two-turn horse, to quicken up the way she did on a dirt track.”

Asked if Delightful Joy could reach the heights of Dayatthespa, Bradley said, “It’s almost too much to hope for that she could be another Dayatthespa. But Dayatthespa won impressively first time out, too, so you never know. Hope springs eternal.”

Bradley Thoroughbreds has also enjoyed success with its pinhooking ventures in recent years and the bloodstock agent said he has high hopes as the juvenile sales season looms. The group’s 2014 graduates include GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Lady Eli (Divine Park) and Saturday’s GIII Robert B. Lewis S. runner-up Firing Line (Line of David).
“We had a very good year last year and it’s going to be hard to duplicate,” Bradley said. “But we have some horses we’re really excited about. We have a colt by Uncle Mo out of Alienated (Gone West) (hip 106) who will sell at Barretts and a Bernardini filly at OBS March (hip 522) who has all the tools. So we have a lot to look forward to.” -Jessica Martini

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