Chasten crushes Obeah Stakes, emerges as Delaware Handicap threat
Chasten's 6 1/4-length Obeah romp at Delaware Park stamped her as a Delaware Handicap contender, with Irad Ortiz Jr. and Brad Cox looking ahead.
Chasten did not merely win the Obeah Stakes. She announced herself as a filly moving into a different class, powering clear by 6 1/4 lengths at Delaware Park and turning a $150,000 stakes into a statement about what comes next. The Juddmonte homebred, trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.83 and finished like a horse with bigger targets in mind.
The race was over before the stretch ended. Chasten was the 1-2 favorite, but she had to do the work from just off the pace after Amalfi Drive and Late Nite Call carved out the early fractions in 23.50 and 46.57 seconds. Ortiz asked Chasten to advance on the far turn, and she launched a sustained three-wide run, collared Amalfi Drive at the quarter pole and drew away with authority. Cash Call had been listed among the entrants but did not run, leaving a seven-horse field that Chasten made look much smaller.
What makes the Obeah more than a local stakes score is the shape of Chasten’s campaign. She won her Churchill Downs debut at two, returned at four to take an allowance at Fair Grounds and later set a Colonial Downs track record in the Sandy Bottom Stakes. That Colonial performance mattered because it showed she could ship, carry speed and finish at a mile, and Delaware suggested the same profile with more punch. Add in the pedigree, she is a half-sister to champion older dirt female Idiomatic, and Cox has a filly whose résumé is starting to read like a graded-stakes horse rather than an overnight type.
That is why the next stop matters. Delaware Park’s 2026 stakes schedule has the Grade III Delaware Handicap set for Saturday, September 26, with a base purse of $500,000 that can climb to $600,000 if a 2025 or 2026 Grade I or Grade II winner starts. The Obeah, named for the mare who won the Delaware Handicap in 1969 and 1970, has always pointed in that direction. Chasten just made the route look obvious, and with the older-filly division taking shape, she now owns a seat at the table.
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