Bud Delp is running horses in back-to-back co-features at Pimlico Race Course this afternoon, including heavily favored Western Echo in the inaugural Bernard P. Bond Stakes and the venerable Sunny Sunrise in the Grade III Polynesian Stakes.

But the well-known trainer won't be in Baltimore to watch them run.

Like numerous other Maryland horsemen, Delp is on his way to the September yearling sale in Keeneland, Ky., where over the next nine days nearly 3,500 horses will be auctioned off.

It's an annual trek for Delp and his owners Harry and Tom Meyerhoff, who over the years have had stellar success at the sale, purchasing three-time champion and Horse of the Year Spectacular Bid there for $37,000 as well other equine millionaires like Dispersal and Sunny Sunrise for bargain prices.

"Of course, we wanted to see the horses run today at Pimlico, but there weren't any flights available after Sunny's race," Delp said. "We have to be at Keeneland tomorrow [Sunday] to look at horses since the sale starts on Monday. But since we can't be at Pimlico, Bill Greely [president and GM of Keeneland Race Course] is setting us up in the video room at Keeneland and showing us the Maryland stakes simulcasts."

Western Echo is following the pattern of other successful Delp and Meyerhoff purchases at Keeneland. He was bought out of the sale last year for $30,000 and is already twice stakes placed, finishing third in the Grade II Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park on Aug. 13 and second just six days ago in the Arch Ward Stakes at Arlington International Racecourse.

"Normally, I wouldn't ship a horse to Chicago, run him in a stakes, ship him back to Maryland and then run him in another stakes in six days," Delp said. "But the horse couldn't have come out of the Arlington race any better."