Calamity Kate lights up toteboard in Delaware Oaks upset

George and Lori Hall’s Calamity Kate (Yes It’s True) gunned straight to the lead in Saturday’s Delaware Oaks (G2) and never looked back en route to a 54-1 upset under jockey Edgar Prado.

The 1 1/16-mile contest featured the return of Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine Lovely Maria (Majesticperfection), but that filly offered nothing as Calamity Kate nearly broke the track record as the longest shot on the board.

She posted a final time of 1:41.79 for 1 1/16 miles over Delaware Park’s fast main track, just missing the 1:41.52 mark set on Independence Day, 1998.

Calamity Kate exited the gates just one from the far outside in the eight-filly field and was immediately pointed to the lead by Prado. Hitting high gear within a few strides, the bay lass managed to clear the field, angle over and take command while settling just off the rail.

Meanwhile, Lovely Maria was running about three wide in midpack. The Larry Jones pupil attempted to make up some ground entering the turn, and briefly appeared ready to make a run while well out in the middle of the track. However, she just couldn’t keep up as Calamity Kate continued motoring in the lane.

Jockey Kerwin Clark took care of his filly once it became clear Lovely Maria wasn’t going to finish in the money. Instead, she ended up fifth, which returned major dividends to show players who took a shot against the heavy 1-5 favorite.

Calamity Kate paid $110.80 for the 1 3/4-length win and $79.40 for the show. Peace and War (War Front), who took second, provided a $29.40 show price at 8-1 while Hip Hop N Jazz (Speightstown), sent off at 25-1 returned $59.40 for third-place honors.

The $1 superfecta, with Bar of Gold (Medaglia d’Oro) coming in fourth, was worth a very nice $15,862.80.

Calamity Kate, who is trained by Kelly Breen, more than doubled her career earnings to $345,868 with the Delaware Oaks score, posted just her third lifetime victory and added a first stakes win to her resume, which now stands at 8-3-1-0. The Kentucky-bred filly is the first registered filly out of Justmeandmyshadow (Tiznow), who is a half-sister to Grade 1-scoring sire Officer (Bertrando).

One race earlier, Irish-bred Ceisteach (New Approach) gutted out a head victory in the Robert G. Dick Memorial S. (G3) for trainer Tom Proctor. Channing Hill guided the four-year-old chestnut miss as she ran 1 3/8 miles on the firm turf in 2:16 4/5.

Kitten’s Point (Kitten’s Joy), the even-money favorite who was exiting a win in the Bewitch S. (G3) on April 24 at Keeneland, finished third.

Galiana (Stonesider) kicked off the day’s stakes action when taking the Dashing Beauty S. by three parts of a length as the 8-5 favorite, and was followed three races later by Holiday Star (Harlan’s Holiday), who scored a head triumph in the Cape Henlopen S. over 3-1 choice Montclair (Montjeu).