The Critical Way Wins Wolf Hill

OCEANPORT, NJ – Heavily-favored The Critical Way kicked off the stakes action on Saturday’s Haskell (G1) card winning the Wolf Hill Stakes at Monmouth Park.

“I love that he sits off the pace now,” said trainer Jose Delgado. “We’re going in the right direction with the horse. It’s nice coming off the pace because 5 furlongs, or 5 1/2, is usually all about speed. I like it. He was really not scheduled for this race. We ran today more as a work. It went well. Now we’re thinking about Saratoga (Troy Stakes [G3] on August 6). Then we’ll go to Parx (for the August 25 Parx Dash [G3] and/or the September 25 Turf Monster [G3]). The Breeders’ Cup (Turf Sprint) is the long-term plan. We’ll see what happens. He did it very easy today. I want to see how he comes out and we’ll go from there.”

“The race set up nicely for us,” winning jockey Paco Lopez said. “Usually Jose sends the horse (to the front). The last race, he came from behind. He’s doing very good. I asked Delgado what he thinks and he said maybe take him back a little to lay second or third and see what happens. Today, the horse worked it out for me. He’s a nice horse and he’s fast. He always tries very hard and he ran very good today.”