Delaware Park opens 89th season, Jamie Ness eyeing fast start

Jamie Ness opened Delaware Park’s 89th season with the kind of early firepower that can shape a meet before most bettors have settled on a strategy. With four horses entered and the morning-line favorites in the first three races, Ness went into the eight-race opening card with a clear chance to seize control of the standings from the first afternoon.

That matters at Delaware because the meet rewards repetition. Ness finished the 2025 season with 72 wins from 200 starts, a 36 percent strike rate that explains why his barn again drew immediate attention when live racing began Wednesday at 12:20 p.m. He also won his 11th straight training title at the track last year, putting him in the same Delaware conversation as Grover “Buddy” Delp, who collected 11 titles beginning in 1963. Few trainers at any track can claim that kind of sustained hold on one circuit.

The question around opening day was not whether Ness would have horses ready. It was who could interrupt the rhythm. H. Graham Motion remains one of the most established names in the Delaware mix, and Jaime Rodriguez, who secured his fifth straight riding title when the meet ended last year, has shown the kind of local timing that can turn a card in a hurry. If Ness was going to start fast, the challenge would come from other horsemen and jockeys who know exactly how quickly a Delaware meet can get away from the rest of the room.

Delaware Park also built incentives around that early push. Horsemen stabled at the track by April 30 were eligible for a May starter bonus worth $1,200 total, with $1,000 to the trainer and $200 to the owner, provided the races met field-size requirements of at least eight starters on dirt and 10 on turf. That kind of structure gives stables another reason to be fully engaged from the first week, not after the marquee days arrive.

Those bigger days are already on the calendar. Delaware Derby Day is set for June 13, and Delaware Handicap Day follows on September 26, with the 75-day live-racing season scheduled to run through October 17. If Ness converts his early favorites and keeps controlling the overnight races, Delaware’s summer story may again be written around his barn long before the stakes cards take center stage.