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Shared Sense Completes Trainer Brad Cox’s Indiana Derby, Oaks Double

Godolphin homebred Shared Sense went four wide and survived an objection to win Wednesday evening's Grade 3 Indiana Derby, giving trainer Brad Cox and jockey Florent Geroux the graded stakes double on the card after winning the G3 Indiana Oaks with Shedaresthedevil. Sent off as the 5-2 favorite, Shared Sense defeated Major Fed by about three lengths at the finish.

The 3-year-old son of Street Sense completed 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.46 over the fast main track at Indiana Grand, earning his first 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The updated points standings are available here: Derby Oaks Leaderboard

Second-last heading into the clubhouse turn, Geroux made his way to the rail to save ground with Shared Sense. The pair moved up the rail down the backstretch, then found themselves behind a three-wide wall of horses mid-way through the far turn.

Major Fed was on the outside of Shared Sense, and Geroux rode aggressively to make room four-wide and force that rival five-wide as the field turned for home. Major Fed's rider James Graham lodged an objection after the race, but stewards disallowed the claim and let the result stand as Shared Sense skipped home to an easy three-length win.

Graham and Major Fed had to settle for second, while Necker Island and Extraordinary filled out the superfecta.

Bred in Kentucky by his owner, Shared Sense is the first foal out of the Bernardini mare Collective, herself out of the two-time Grade 1 winner Composure (Touch Gold). Collective is an unraced half-sister to multiple Grade 1-placed runners Centring and Penwith.

It took Shared Sense three starts to officially break his maiden; in fact, he was second that day in late November, but the winner Blackberry Wine was later disqualified for a medication positive. In January, Shared Sense finished sixth in the listed Smarty Jones at Oaklawn, but he came back to win an allowance race at the end of February.

Given a few months off and switched to the turf, Shared Sense was sixth in the listed War Chant Stakes on May 23 at Churchill, then went back to the dirt to run second to the undefeated Art Collector in an allowance race at Churchill on June 13.

(Art Collector is entered in Saturday's Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.)

Overall, Shared Sense has won three of his eight starts for earnings of over $320,000.

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Brisset Believes Extraordinary Has A Big Shot In Indiana Derby

Trainer Rodolphe Brisset's first words when asked about his Indiana Derby contender Extraordinary: “I love the horse.”

Extraordinary makes his stakes debut in the $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby at 1 1/8 miles Wednesday. The son of sprint champion Speightstown certainly was intended as a top horse, selling as a yearling for $750,000, with WinStar Farm and China Horse Club teaming with breeder Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings to race the horse.

Extraordinary is 10-1 in the morning line, but Brisset thinks the chestnut colt will be more like 6-1. Extraordinary found all kinds of trouble in his last start, a late-running fourth out of 12 in a Churchill Downs allowance race. The winner, Man in the Can, is running in Keeneland's Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass, second-place Dean Martini won the Ohio Derby and third-place Earner also is in the Indiana Derby.

“If you look at the replay the other day, he got in a lot of trouble,” the Keeneland-based Brisset said. “He broke sideways. I have no idea why. It was the kind of race, if you're not right up there, you're getting shuffled back. I think we'd have been up there with the winner to fight for the win. He only got beat (3 3/4) lengths and galloped out in front of everybody. The move he made from the three-eighths pole to the quarter pole, I thought it was very impressive.”

Extraordinary hurt his closing bid by running greenly through the stretch. “I don't like to make an excuse,” Brisset said. “I think we got tougher from that race. That's why we decided to go in there. Based on what we saw, we think we've got a shot.”

Extraordinary never began racing until Feb. 8. “We've been pointing to July, August and September,” Brisset said.

Does that include Sept. 5 – as in the rescheduled Kentucky Derby?

“We're giving him the opportunity to bring us there,” he said. “It's just a matter if he's good enough. It's a different year. Obviously, you don't want to peak too early. The horse was very late, didn't race as a 2-year-old. He won on talent, but it took him a couple of races to figure things out. You can feel he's doing just the minimum in the mornings.”

Brisset added blinkers for Extraordinary's last race and is satisfied with the result. The colt still doesn't work fast, the trainer said, “but it's the way he's doing it… He's showing us the right signs: That he's a two-turn horse, a dirt horse.”

WinStar Farm and China Horse Club know well that not every horse can even come close to being a Justify, their unbeaten 2018 Triple Crown winner (whom Brisset trained before the unraced 2-year-old was sent to Bob Baffert). Indeed, they have a Plan B, with Extraordinary entered in Monday's Fasig-Tipton sale of horses of racing age in Lexington.

“For the right price, they'll let the horse go,” Brisset said. “If he runs 1-2-3, I'm sure we'll get together and we'll talk. It's a long way before he gets sold.”

Brisset also entered Aurelia Garland in the Indiana Oaks but said she will scratch after finishing second in Sunday's Iowa Oaks.

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Background Hopes To Be Front And Center After Wednesday’s Indiana Derby

Trainer Mike Puhich is hoping his 3-year-old gelding Background is front and center after Wednesday's $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby. Background is 20-1 in the morning line for the field of 10.

Background is owned by the Giddyup Stables of Bob Rondeau, who retired three years ago after 37 years as the voice of the University of Washington athletics, and his wife Molly, an Indiana product whose grandparents lived in Shelbyville.

Puhich is based at the Pegasus Training and Rehabilitation Center just outside Seattle in Redmond, Wash., but this year is establishing a Midwest division that wintered in Arkansas and moved on to Kentucky. Background began his racing career at Arkansas' Oaklawn Park, winning on his second attempt while stretching out to 1 1/16 miles, then alternated a pair of thirds with a pair of ninth-place finishes.

“If you look at his form, it's pretty much similar to everybody else in the race,” Puhich said. “It's a competitive race. Everybody's still eligible for conditioned allowance races. They're a cut below right now the top 3-year-olds in the country. But I think this is the kind of race where somebody is hoping to have their horse step up and go to that next level. But right now, we're all on equal terms. I think it's a real competitive race — a race we feel we're going to be competitive in and that he fit in.”

Background last ran June 14 when ninth in an allowance sprint at Churchill Downs. Puhich was using the spot as a tightener for the 1 1/8-mile Indiana Derby but after that poor performance he thought a trip to Indiana Grand was out.

“He's run a couple of disappointing races, but he's had an issue with chronic allergies,” Puhich said. “His last start he had a lot of mucous. We tried a different type of herb on him. I was at wit's end with him, and he responded really well to it. We were going to use that last race as a prep for this race, but I pretty much wrote it off the way he ran. But he responded to it and 'scoped really clean. We figured, 'Let's go up and take a shot.' He's doing good. He's happy and as healthy as he's been for a long time. So, we're looking for a much-improved performance. He's going to need it.”

The Indiana Derby winner will receive 20 points toward qualifying for the Sept. 5 delayed Kentucky Derby. While Background is nominated to the Triple Crown, Puhich said, “He's got to be awful impressive to take that next step. But I think everybody in the race is hoping their horse does step up and shows something that 'why heck, we can still be dreaming here.' But right now, we're going to focus on this race, and see what happens.”

In an excellent betting race — Arkansas Derby fourth-place finisher Winning Impression is the 3-1 favorite — there's good money to be made to those who can handicap the Grade 3 race correctly.

Asked why horseplayers should use his horse, Puhich said, “Twenty-to-one is a really good price for him. I think he fits in there with anybody on paper, if you go back and look at his better races. If he runs his best race, he's going to be right there.

“But I also think that it's the type of race that after it's over — no matter who wins — you can look at it and say, 'Oh yeah, you can make a case for that horse.' Because everybody's got a live shot, in my opinion.”

Regular rider Tyler Baze has the mount.

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Evenly-Matched Group Contests Indiana Derby

It’s rare to see a GI Kentucky Derby prep on a weekday, much rarer to find it on a July weekday, but an evenly-matched field of 10 horses will contest the GIII Indiana Derby Wednesday at Indiana Grand with 34 qualifying points for the Run for the Roses up for grabs.

Lloyd Madison Farms’ Major Fed (Ghostzapper) looks for some racing luck after several wide trips along the Derby trail. A sharp maiden winner on New Year’s Day at Fair Grounds, the homebred was second in a division of the GII Risen Star S. and fourth after a wide journey while closing into a slow pace in the GII Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby. Hung out in the widest draw in the GIII Matt Winn S. last out May 23 at Churchill, he chased the pace before fading to finish last of 10.

Taishan (Twirling Candy) also looks to rebound while shipping in from the west coast for Richard Baltas. Fourth in the GII Sham S. and fifth in the GIII Southwest S. over the winter, the $150,000 OBS March buy scored in a sloppy Oaklawn optional claimer Mar. 14 with a field-best 92 Beyer before running a good third after moving early into a fast pace in the Oaklawn S. Apr. 11 in Hot Springs. He failed to build on those two efforts, however, when last in a division of the GI Arkansas Derby May 2.

Godolphin’s progressive Shared Sense (Street Sense) goes out for trainer Brad Cox. Sixth in the Smarty Jones S. and War Chant S. in his previous two stakes tries, he nevertheless earned the highest last-out Beyer when earning an 89 as runner-up to the promising Art Collector (Bernardini) last out in a Churchill optional claimer June 13.

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