Love You More edges Rehoboth Stakes field at Delaware Park

Love You More turned Delaware Park’s Rehoboth Stakes into a breakthrough, running down the heavy favorite and earning the first stakes victory of her career. The 4-year-old Ontario-bred filly, ridden by Angel Cruz for trainer Horacio De Paz, won the $100,000 Race 8 feature on May 30 by one-half length in 1:12.30 over six furlongs on a fast dirt track, a result that paid $26.40 to win and immediately changes the shape of her résumé.

The Rehoboth was restricted to fillies and mares 3 and up, and it drew nine entries before two were scratched, leaving seven starters to navigate the sprint. Haulin Ice entered as the 2/5 choice and was expected to control the race, but Love You More handled the pressure better when the real running started. Carmelina checked in second, another length back, with Haulin Ice third after being beaten by 2 1/2 lengths from the runner-up, a margin that shows how quickly the order shifted once the field straightened for home.

That sequence matters because this was not a soft local allowance in disguise. Love You More had to answer a legitimate stakes test against a short-priced favorite switching back to dirt, and she did it with a professional move through the later stages rather than a fluke burst. The daughter of Maclean’s Music out of Keen Mischief now has black-type on her page, and for Barry K. Schwartz and Tall Oaks Farm, the win gives them a filly whose form has started to connect at the right time. De Paz also gets a meaningful stakes result that can shape the rest of the summer.

The larger question is what comes next, and the Rehoboth gives the connections a useful answer. Love You More no longer looks like a filly limited to allowance company at this distance; she proved she can negotiate a pressured six-furlong stakes setup and finish the job against a favored rival. That kind of win usually opens the door to stronger regional stakes, where the next step is not just defending form but testing whether she belongs against deeper sprint fields beyond Delaware Park.