Steve Hobby, a perennial top conditioner in the Midwest, will be among the dozen or so new outfits planning to spend the next six months at Delaware Park. Opening Day for the 73rd season of live racing is set for Saturday, May 1. The 116-day meeting will feature live racing on Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with Thursday live cards scheduled from July 15 through August 26. First race post time is 1:15 p.m.

After the conclusion of the Oaklawn Park meet, Hobby would typically ship his stable to Arlington Park. But this year, the 54-year-old native, La Harpe, Illinois was convinced to try something new by the racing secretary Pat Pope. Pope also got a little assist from dirt – the natural dirt surface at Delaware Park’s that is.

“Pat Pope is first reason, he is the racing secretary here at Oaklawn and there at Delaware,” said trainer Steve Hobby from his barn in Hot Springs, Arkansas. “He tried to get me to come there last year, but we could not make the move at the time. We had been going to Arlington Park after the Oaklawn meet and I really like Arlington. I like Chicago and the track is pretty, but I got a lot of horses that prefer dirt over polytrack. We went to looking for a track with dirt and Delaware Park fit the bill. It has a nice long meet and the purses are very good, so we thought we would give it a shot. Hopefully, I can fit in. Several people that were at Delaware last year, Neil Howard for one, told me how much they like the racing surface and that is always a plus when you are dealing with young horses. I was there once for a stakes race a few years ago and I really liked it. The barn area was nice with all the grass and all the trees.”

Hobby, who started his training career in 1976, plans on shipping into Delaware this week. He was pleased with his meet at Oaklawn Park, but he thought he could have done a little better. His record at the recently concluded Oaklawn meet was 12 wins, 19 seconds, and 15 thirds from 102 starters with earnings $324,757.

“It was okay”, he said. “We had a little dull spot in the middle of the meet. We started good and we finished good.”

Hobby is hoping a good finish at Oaklawn translates into a fast start at Delaware.

“I really hope so now that we got our momentum back,” he said with a chuckle.

He will have approximately 36 horses from a variety of categories at Delaware Park.

“I got a pretty good range,” he said. “I got some nice babies coming from Florida, I got some cheap horses that are non-winners of two, and I got some all the way up to Grade I with some minor stake horses thrown in between. I think it will be a nice bunch and I am hoping they fit into the Delaware Park program.

When asked if he could give one or two horses to watch from his barn at Delaware Park this year, Hobby gave a pair.

“I have a filly named Aliyah,” he said. “She just broke her maiden last weekend here in her second race and I think she has a lot of potential. I also have a 3-year-old named Tiz Dangerous that I think has a lot of promise.”

Aliyah is a 3-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Maria’s Mon. In her latest, she posted a 2-length victory in a six furlong maiden at Oaklawn Park on April 10. In her only other outing, also at Oaklawn and at six furlongs, she ran second beaten 3-lengths on March 18.

Tiz Dangerous is still a maiden, but has shown ability in his three career starts all at Oaklawn Park and at the distance of a mile and a sixteenth. The 3-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Tiznow finished third in his career debut on February 20, he followed by running second on March 13, and in his most recent effort, he ran third on April 10.