Sheldon Nitenson’s Danalake, a winner of her last two, tops the $75,000 Blue Hen Stakes at Delaware Park this Saturday.  Last year, the locally-based Grace Hall used the mile and seventy yard test for 2-year-old fillies as a prep for her second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

In her most recent, Danalake posted a 3 ¾-length score in the one mile $50,000 Our Mims Stakes at Delaware Park on August 22.  Previously, the daughter of Friends Lake posted a 2-length triumph to break her maiden going five furlongs at Delaware Park on July 4.  The Kentucky-bred conditioned by Todd Pletcher sports a career record of two wins and a second from three starts with earnings of $58,800.

Anthony Dutrow, who won the Blue Hen Stakes with Grace Hall last year, has entered Green Lantern Stable’s Dahteste.  In her last, the Kentucky-bred daughter of Majestic Warrior broke her maiden by a head in her second career outing going a mile at Delaware Park on September 3.

“We sprinted her in her first race and she got some experience from it,” said trainer Anthony Dutrow.  “Obviously, she learned a lot because when we stretched her out going two turns, in her next race, she won and she ran very professionally.  It was really good to see her give that kind of effort with such limited experience.  She really stepped up and ran a nice race for us, so we are very happy with her.  She has trained very well for the Blue Hen.  There are a lot of things that add up that makes sense for us to try her in the Blue Hen.”

Fox Hill Farm’s Martha’s Moon will be making her first start going a route.  The daughter of Malibu Moon has four career starts all sprinting at Calder Race Course.  Her two victories all came over sloppy tracks. 

“She has got a grass pedigree and a lot of those grass horses prefer an off-track,” said trainer John Servis.  “We purchased her thinking she was going to prefer going long on the grass.  There really is not much around right now for her on the grass, so we thought we would try her going long in the Blue Hen Stakes.  And you know if we get some rain that will not hurt either.  It seems like they come out of Calder and do well every where especially in the summer time.  I think it really toughens young horses up and makes them pretty hardy and they generally come north and do real well.”