Haulin Ice returns to dirt for Rehoboth Stakes test at Delaware Park

Haulin Ice’s move back to dirt was the whole point of Delaware Park’s Rehoboth Stakes. The 5-year-old mare had already made a habit of answering questions on the main track, and after a sixth-place try in the Grade 2 Unbridled Sidney on turf, this six-furlong test became less about routine and more about identity.

The $100,000 Rehoboth drew a field of nine for fillies and mares 3 and up, with 120 pounds assigned to 3-year-olds and 125 to older runners. Equibase capped the race at 14 starters and gave first preference to graded stakes winners in 2026. Delaware Park, which opened in 1937, ran its 89th live season Wednesday through Saturday, and this race fit the kind of regional stakes that can shape a mare’s path through the summer.

For Haulin Ice, the dirt switch made sense on paper because her best evidence has come on the main track. She became the first accredited Arkansas-bred to reach $1 million in career earnings after her front-running 11 3/4-length win in the Downthedustyroad Breeders’ Stakes at Oaklawn on Feb. 20, when her earnings were listed at $1,081,500. She followed that with a 1 3/4-length win over Foie Gras in the Matron Stakes on March 27, pushing her earnings to $1,227,750 and reinforcing a record that already included stakes wins in the Princess Rooney at Gulfstream Park and the Vagrancy at Belmont at Aqueduct.

BloodHorse identifies Haulin Ice as a daughter of Coal Front out of She's Smoke, by Half Ours, foaled March 14, 2021, and her Arkansas-bred profile gives the race a bigger meaning than one favorite on one card. Eugenia Thompson-Benight bred the mare, and her rise has turned into a showcase for the state program after she broke Nodouble’s long-standing Arkansas-bred earnings mark.

The sharper challenge in the Rehoboth came from Mag Racing Stable’s G W’s Girl, who was set to make her 2026 debut after a 2025 campaign that produced $221,500 from six starts. The Florida-bred filly by Munnings out of Essence of Audre, trained by Greg Compton, won the Dixie Belle Stakes and the Mockingbird Stakes last year, so this was not just a pace presence. It was a real check on whether Haulin Ice still owns the division when the surface is right.

That is what made the Rehoboth more than a formality. If Haulin Ice was going to reassert herself, dirt at Delaware Park was the place to do it, and the stakes scene in the region would have a clearer pecking order after it.