[caption id="attachment_71373" align="alignright" width="300" caption="J.P Delaney."]
When Austin Delaney departed this realm in 2009, he left quite a legacy both on the streets of New York and at its racetracks. The Irishtown, Co. Mayo, native was the consummate New York Irishman, who many counted on for a nudge in the right direction upon alighting on these shores. His colors flew home first at Saratoga in the Yaddo Stakes on an almost regular basis in the early 1990s. His fillies Irish Actress and Irish Linnet won split divisions of that stakes race in 1991, with Irish Linnet going on to take the next four editions of the Yaddo. Only Kelso, who won five consecutive runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, is believed to have managed such a feat in New York.
Three years after his passing, Delaney’s legacy may still bear bountiful fruit on the racetrack. Team Valor’s Went the Day Well, a 3-year-old colt whose conception was planned by Delaney, will attempt to win Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. There’s a strong scent of familiarity surrounding the colt.
Went the Day Well is owned by the same connections that own Animal Kingdom, last year’s Derby winner, with trainer Graham Motion again calling the shots. Jockey John Velazquez will attempt to make it two Derbies in a row, and the colt prepped for his engagement under the Twin Spires by winning the Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park in late March, as did Animal Kingdom.
Until recently, the breeder of Went the Day Well has been identified as J.P. Delaney, son of Austin Delaney, who has set the record straight.
“My dad did all the breeding on this one,” said Delaney, who practices law in New York City as a partner in the firm of O’Dwyer and Bernstien, and maintains an interest in several restaurants in New York and Dublin. “He bought the mare, Tiz Maie’s Day, from John Hassett of Quin, Co. Clare, who had trained horses for him in Ireland.”
Tiz Maie’s Day, a daughter of Tiznow out of Sweet Roberta, never made it to the races. She was mated to Proud Citizen in 2008 and dropped the bay colt that would later be named Went the Day Well at Keane Stud in Amenia, N.Y. in February 2009, three months before Austin Delaney died.
The Delaney family divested themselves of both the broodmare and the foal soon after the patriarch’s death.
“I don’t second guess myself about that decision,” said J.P. Delaney. “I feel very lucky to have my name associated with a horse in the Kentucky Derby. We wish [the colt’s connections] luck and hope they’ll do well.”
Went the Day Well is expected to fetch a price north of 20-1 in the Derby, although he appears to be coming into the race the right way. His connections have noted an immaturity in that he has thus far appeared to be content to draw slightly ahead of other horses without leaving them behind. But his final pre-Derby workout, at Churchill Downs on Saturday, may augur a new mindset.
“That’s the first time he’s gone by a horse without any waiting,” said Team Valor principal Barry Irwin of Went the Day Well after a 5-furlong work in 1:01. “It was nice to see him draw away from the other horse.”
“I couldn’t have been happier,” said Motion of the work. “It was as good as I could have hoped for.”
Among the expected 19 rivals that will line up alongside Went the Day Well is Coolmore’s Daddy Long Legs. The Aidan O’Brien trainee got a taste of the Churchill Downs surface when he finished 12th there in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The son of Scat Daddy most recently won the UAE Derby in Dubai and will be ridden here by Colm O’Donoghue. O’Brien finished fifth in last year’s Derby with the fast finishing Master of Hounds.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin takes another shot at the Derby with Godolphin’s Alpha. This colt ran second last time out in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. On the down side, he ran 11th to Hansen in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, has gate issues and needs a new rider after Ramon Dominguez opted for Hansen. McLaughlin, a Kentucky native whose parents emigrated from Belfast, finished second in this race with Closing Argument, a 71-1 shot, in Giacomo’s Derby in 2005. Last year, he finished well back with Soldat.
