By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 1, 2006; E08

Grover Delp picked up his morning newspaper yesterday and chuckled. There, in a preview of the Maryland Juvenile Championship, was trainer Mark Shuman talking about sending his horse, Travelin Leroy, to the Arkansas Derby and then, hopefully, to the Kentucky Derby next spring.

Delp, 73, knows a thing or two about horse racing, having trained the great Spectacular Bid, ranking ninth among all trainers in lifetime victories and having been a member of the Racing Hall of Fame since 2002. He figured the fast and expensive Travelin Leroy had a number of knocks against him going into the one-mile Juvenile Championship for Maryland-bred 2-year-olds: chiefly, he had never raced beyond 5 furlongs and had a sprinter's pedigree.

"It reminded me of when I had Spectacular Bid," Delp said of Shuman's boasting, "but I'd already won the [Grade I] Champagne [Stakes]."

The crowd of 4,495 that showed up for the final card of the year didn't agree with Delp's assessment and hammered Travelin Leroy down to odds of 3-5, but it was the old veteran who had his picture taken in the winner's circle after his Vegas Play steadied hard on the rail and still ran down the favorite to win by a half length.

While Travelin Leroy set a moderate, lightly pressured pace for three quarters of a mile, jockey Richard Monterrey bided his time on Vegas Play near the rear of the pack early and then found a spot on the rail to advance on the far turn. As Travelin Leroy began to labor, Vegas Play gathered momentum. Just when it looked like Monterrey would seize the lead, however, another horse, Creve Coeur, veered in sharply and pressed him against the rail.

Monterrey pulled hard on the reins to avoid disaster, but somehow Vegas Play maintained his stride, altering course and driving hard down the middle of the track to win in 1 minute 40.94 seconds. Creve Coeur finished second, 1 lengths ahead of Travelin Leroy.

"I tried to get to the rail and they squeezed me, and I took the horse to the outside," said Monterrey, who also won the prior race on a $72 shocker. Vegas Play "did everything right. He was much the best today."

The Maryland Juvenile Championship has produced some notable horses in its 23 years, including 1983 Preakness winner and 2002 Preakness runner-up Magic Weisner. The race, however, had its purse reduced to $75,000 this year -- it had never been run for less than $100,000 -- because the breeders' fund has been strapped.

Delp called Vegas Play, who paid $16.40 to win, "just a nice, useful horse" and said he planned to run him back in nothing more ambitious than an entry-level allowance race.

"I'm just sensible about him," Delp said.

"There were some decent, nice-trying horses, but if those Graham Motion horses [in the race] had been any good, they wouldn't be here; they'd be down in Florida."

Then, with a laugh, Delp got off a little parting shot: "I want to wish Mark Shuman . . . best of luck in the Kentucky Derby the first Saturday in May."