Part of the Del Cap Festival Weekend that features other races over the two days including the Delaware Handicap, the Oaks is open to three-year-old fillies and is run over one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt.
The inaugural running of the Delaware Oaks took place on June 28, 1938, and was won by Isabel Dodge Sloane's filly Handcuff.
[2] Coming off her June 6, 1941 win in the Top Flight Handicap at New York's Belmont Park, Tangled won the Oaks for the Greentree Stable of Helen Hay Whitney.
Racing Hall of Fame inductees John Gaver Sr. and Eddie Arcaro, the filly beat her closest rival by nine lengths while setting a new track record with a winning time of 1:49 4/5 for a mile and one-eighth on dirt.
[4] United States Hall of Fame fillies Gallorette (1945), Dark Mirage (1968), Gallant Bloom (1969) and Desert Vixen (1973) have all won this race, as did the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Lauries Dancer in 1971.