It is finally here. We are only two days away from the opening of the 72nd season of live racing at Delaware Park. The anticipation and excitement has steadily been building over the cold winter days.

Now, the reality of trying to handicap races at the beginning of a new meet. Additional factors, such as superstar jockey Ramon Dominguez not returning and the influx of top Midwest trainers, makes handicapping the opening day card and the first few weeks of the meet even more challenging.

So as a handicapper what game plan can we develop to help us over the challenging first few days of a meet.

Most importantly, keep everything simple. Often as a handicapper I tend to make things complex, so I am going to try to keep focused and keep things simple. Here is what I am going to be looking for the first two days of the meet.

1.) Horses for courses - in my opinion, over the years, certain horses have shown to really have a fondness for Delaware Park. Some horses just seem to change once they come to the oval in Stanton. So with that said, here are a couple of horses to keep an eye on.

Partner’s Halo – second race, Saturday – typical horse for course in that all five of his career victories and $72,000 of his $105,513 in lifetime earnings have come at Delaware Park. In his last four starts, all away from Delaware, he has beaten only one horse. This Maryland-bred trained Mike Petro may not pull off the upset, but look for him to show dramatic improvement.

Bentrovhto – sixth race, Saturday – although he is winless in six outings this year, he has still been rather sharp as indicated by his three seconds. Plus, the Florida-bred trained by perennial top trainer Michael Gorham has a record of three wins, three seconds and a third from nine starts at DelPark.

Announce of Gold – seventh race, Monday – although he only has one DelPark win, the Kentucky-bred has been on the board in 14 of his 27 starts at Delaware Park. So, I am going to put him in my exacta and trifecta combinations.

2.) Trainers – it is obvious. Focus on the trainers who win the majority of the races. In past years, these trainers include Scott Lake, Tim Ritchey, Larry Jones, and Steve Klesaris. Here are a couple of trainers to keep an eye on the first few days of the meet.

Wanda Nevada – first race, Saturday, trained by Tim Ritchey – Ritchey has finished in the top five of the DelPark trainer standings for nearly the 15 years. Wanda Nevada had a very sharp effort in her only career outing and the filly who ran third came out of the race to win her next start.

Sadie My Lady – fifth race, Saturday, trained by Scott Lake – Lake is the seven-time defending leading trainer at Delaware Park and he has done well dropping horses in class. Sadie My Lady has been sharp since being freshened and drops into straight claiming event after facing optional competition in Maryland.

New trainers – Cody Autrey, Ron Moquett and Ronny Werner – look for these three to have solid meets. They all have plenty horses and they all run top outfits that should not have a problem adjusting to Delaware Park.