Seemingly beaten as the field of seven 2-year-old fillies charged down the Delaware Park stretch in the $75,000 Blue Hen Stakes on Saturday, Aug. 8, Whitten Way surged late to get up in time and win by a head over the muddy sealed track.

Under apprentice jockey Emanuel Rosario, Whitten Way broke alertly but was soon lost in the pack as the early leaders, led by Tiz Tapping, shot through an opening quarter-mile in :22.32. On the turn, Rosario was urging Whitten Way but not making much headway and still lengths behind the battling frontrunners. Finally kicking into gear in midstretch to the outside of rallying Olivia's Legacy, the duo reeled in Tiz Tapping and flew to the wire. Final time for the six furlongs was 1:13.44. It was a Maryland-bred exacta, with Whitten Way the 1-5 favorite.

"Going down the backstretch, dirt kind of hit her and she started climbing a bit," said trainer Gary Capuano. "He [Rosario] got her in the clear and he was kind of getting after her because she was not making up any ground around the turn. At that point, I just kind of thought, this is not going to be our day.

"Once she got into the stretch and started coming after them though, she was determined. I was not sure until about 30 yards from the wire that she was actually going to get up because she was steady grinding and the three [Olivia's Legacy] ran a real good race. She just out gained them at the end."

Owned by Eagle Up III, London Reid Thoroughbreds and Non Stop Stable, Whitten Way recorded her second career victory from as many starts, both at Delaware Park. She broke her maiden going five furlongs on a fast track on June 24 over stablemate Cha Cha Baby, who has since become a winner and recently topped the Fasig-Tipton July Digital sale at $460,000.

It was the first career Blue Hen Stakes victory for Capuano, who last year sent out five juvenile stakes winners. And it was Rosario's first stakes triumph of his career.

Bred by ZWP Stable and Capuano's Non Stop Stable, Whitten Way is a daughter of champion Game Winner out of the stakes-winning Not For Love mare Steady N Love and is the mare's fourth stakes performer, three of them winners. It's Hammertime (by Vekoma), won two stakes at 2; Shackled Love (Shackleford) was a stakes winner at 3. The mare's current 3-year-old, Let's Go Lando (Game Winner), has three stakes-placings this year at Laurel, including a third in the Federico Tesio.

Six of Steady N Love's seven starters are winners, five six-figure earners. Whitten Way now has earnings of $88,750. The mare didn't have a foal in 2025 and produced an Essential Quality filly this March before being bred to Maxfield for 2027.

Steady N Love is one of four stakes winners for two-time Maryland Broodmare of the Year Slow and Steady, who is also the dam of four stakes-placed runners. The final of Slow and Steady's 14 foals is current 2-year-old Herecomesthecptn, an unarmed son of Game Winner with works at Laurel including a bullet going three furlongs on Aug. 12.