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Indiana Derby: Joseph ‘More Hopeful Than Confident’ In No Getting Over Me

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was a relative unknown in racing circles last year when he brought Math Wizard to the Indiana Derby — so unknown that a lot of people mistakenly called him Joseph Saffie.

Now, a year after Math Wizard finished third, Joseph again is presented on Indiana Grand's showcase racing card with No Getting Over Me in the Grade 3 $300,000 Indiana Derby and Gibberish in the Grade 3 $200,000 Indiana Oaks. A lot has changed for the trainer in the past 12 months, including people knowing his correct name and that Joseph has ascended to the top echelon of horse racing.

Math Wizard put Joseph on the map, earning $1 million and winning the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby for Joseph's first graded-stakes victory. His barn this year has won another five graded stakes with three horses, he picked up high-profile owners and his stable has mushroomed from “35 to 40” horses to “90 or 100,” he said. Besides his Florida base, he is expanding divisions in Kentucky and at Saratoga this summer.

“It's been a big transition. Obviously, Math Wizard was a big part of that, the journey he took us on,” Joseph, a Barbados native who came to South Florida with a two-horse stable in 2011, said by phone. “We picked up really good clients. We already had some of them at that point, but we just continued to build on it. Everything has gone as good as we could ask. The sky's the limit right now. It was why we work so hard to get to this point, to have these opportunities. We're forever thankful to the owners for them.”

Abdullah Saeed Almaddah's No Getting Over Me, 12-1 in the morning line and breaking on the rail, doesn't bring in the same credentials as Math Wizard, who had been running well in 3-year-old stakes, including a second-place showing in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby. No Getting Over Me has raced twice since joining Joseph's barn, with a third and second in entry-level allowance races for Florida-bred horses.

“It's a bit ambitious placement,” Joseph said of the 1 1/8-mile Indiana Derby. “With how the year has been (with leading 3-year-olds being injured), they bought him and want to give him one more try against these horses. Does he have that ability? It's hard to say. He's not really a flashy work horse either. Both times he ran for us he had trips that weren't ideal. But he needs to step up big time to show he can run against these types of horses. It's a question mark.

“We're more hopeful than confident with him. We're taking a chance to see where we're at. We either go back to reality or, if he runs well, we might have to chase a couple more races with him.”

Joseph already had horses for owner e Five Racing Thoroughbreds when he picked up Gibberish following Kiaran McLaughlin's retirement from training to become jockey Luis Saez's agent. Saez has the Indiana Oaks mount on Gibberish, who won a mile Gulfstream Park maiden race in the slop by seven lengths in her last start.

“She ran really big that day,” Joseph said. “It was really sloppy, you could barely see the horses in the race. The Beyer speed figure came back huge. Obviously when horses run a big number in the slop, you don't know if it's legit or not. But she trains on the dry dirt just as good as she ran. She does train like a good horse. She came back from that race and has trained remarkable. Her last work (five-eighths of a mile in 59 3/5 seconds) was phenomenal. There's always that doubt, because of the slop. But I think she's a legit good horse. I look for a big performance.”

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$100,000 Claim Necker Island Jumps Into Indiana Derby For New Trainer Chris Hartman

Owners Jackie Rojas, Wayne Scherr and Raymond Daniels put up $100,000 a month ago to claim the Hard Spun colt Necker Island out of an allowance/optional claiming race at Churchill Downs. On Wednesday they'll try to get a big piece, if not all, of their investment back right off the bat when they run their new acquisition in the Grade 3 $300,000 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino.

Trainer Chris Hartman said the owners didn't necessarily have the Indiana Derby in mind in claiming Necker Island, who had a trio of fifth places and a fourth in four stakes attempts before owner Sagamore Farm opted to put him in the Churchill race for the $100,000 claiming price instead of the allowance condition, for which he was eligible.

Necker Island finished fourth in the stakes-caliber field that day. Of course, that also made him last. Still, the entire field will run this week in Kentucky Derby qualifying races, including runner-up Shared Sense in the Indiana Derby.

“We didn't really have this race in mind, but we were looking at a few spots,” Hartman said of the claim. “This one looked like it was going to come up to our liking. The gentleman who owns him always wanted to claim a horse like that. I noticed the horse in the (entries), and he said, 'Let's do it.' … He had some previous races that were very competitive. He ran two good races in the fall and then sort of slipped off form a little. But he's been running in really tough races. He ran with some really nice horses, all on the Derby trail. That was part of the allure of going after him for $100,000.”

Hartman claims a lot of horses, but never before for six figures.

“I wasn't nervous a drop, but there was a 'shake' for the horse for $100,000,” he said, referencing the claiming game's version of drawing straws to determine who gets a horse when more than one person drops a claim slip before the race.

“He's doing well,” Hartman said. “He's cleaning up the feed tub and training well. So, we thought we'd take a chance. It appears on paper that he fits in the race.”

As far as the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, for which the Indiana Derby's winner will earn 20 qualifying points: “I leave that for others to dream,” he said. “I don't know. It would be a great story if it happened that way.”

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Trainer Brad Cox Has ‘Two Live Shots’ With Indiana Derby, Oaks Starters

Trainer Brad Cox has feasted on the supporting stakes on Indiana Derby Day, winning two stakes each of the past two years and one in 2016. Throw in some seconds and thirds and the Indiana Derby card has been very good to the Cox stable.

“Yeah, but I've never run a horse in the Indiana Derby,” Cox said with a laugh.

That will change Wednesday with Godolphin's Shared Sense the 4-1 third choice in the field of ten 3-year-olds. Cox also has the 9-5 favorite in the co-featured $200,000, Grade 3 Indiana Oaks for 3-year-old fillies. Both horses will be ridden by Florent Geroux.

Cox's deep and talented stable has its main base at Churchill Downs with satellite divisions at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino and in New York. With the operation overseen by assistant trainer Ricky Giannini, Cox has won 38 races at Indiana Grand each of the past two meets with his winning percentage generally over 30 percent. That's been on display on the track's signature day of racing.

Coincidentally, now that Cox has his first Indiana Derby starter, he does not have any horses in those undercard stakes in which he's been so successful.

“It's been a good day for us in the past,” he said. “We've never won the Indiana Oaks or the Derby, so we're looking forward to it. We've got two live shots, for sure.”

Shared Sense certainly has the breeding to go the classic distances. He is a son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, who is a stallion at owner-breeder Godolphin's Darley America in Lexington. Shared Sense's mom, Collective, is a daughter of 2006 Preakness winner Bernardini, another Darley stallion.

Shared Sense blitzed to a career-best 95 Bris speed figure in his last start, a Churchill Downs allowance race. The only problem was that Art Collector ran even faster, beating runner-up Shared Sense by 6 1/2 lengths. It was only a four-horse field, but Art Collector and third-place Finnick the Fierce are headed to Keeneland's Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass Saturday, with Shared Sense and fourth-place Necker Island in the Indiana Derby.

“He got beat by a very nice horse,” Geroux said. “It was a very fast race, looked like one of the fastest 3-year-old speed figures in America so far this year. So that's exciting. But it was a long way between myself and (the winner). But the horse is doing great. It looks like a good spot for him.”

The Indiana Derby will be Shared Sense's first start in a graded stakes. He was sixth in two prior stakes, one in the mud and one grass.

“He's got to get a set up,” Cox said of the late-closer. “We need some speed in there to get his best effort. He's going to show up. He's been training well, continues to get better. And I think he'll get better with more ground. The mile and an eighth should be a positive. He's bred to run all day. I think he'll be in the mix.”

Cox said Shared Sense is reminiscent of a late-blooming 3-year-old he had last year in Owendale, who took a while to hit his best stride but then won a trio of Grade 3 stakes last year while also finishing a fast-flying third in the Preakness Stakes.

“He's got that Owendale running style and getting better with age, for sure,” he said.

Cox has rocketed to the top echelon of horse racing in recent years. Monomoy Girl, who earned her first victory at Indiana Grand, won the 2018 Kentucky Oaks and Breeders' Cup Distaff to be the trainer's first champion. He added two more Eclipse Award winners last year with Covfefe taking the 3-year-old filly and female sprint titles and British Idiom the 2-year-old filly championship after capturing their Breeders' Cup races.

He has yet to run a horse in the Kentucky Derby, however.

Cox is painfully aware of the attrition at the top end of the 3-year-old crop this year. He won the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby with Wells Bayou, now sidelined with bone bruising. He won a division of the Fair Grounds' Grade 2 Risen Star with Mr. Monomoy, out with an ankle injury.

“We've had a horse or two in the past who were in the hunt,” Cox said. “It's extremely hard just to get them qualified (for the Derby), and I'm finding out it's even harder to keep them healthy, happy and sound. Wells Bayou would have made it if it had been the first Saturday in May. It's a tough race to get to, and it's definitely a unique year. Hopefully this is the first and last of a September Derby.”

Cox has run in the Indiana Oaks before, finishing second and third in 2018 with Figarella's Queen and Kelly's Humor.

Shedaresthedevil's only finish out of the top three was fourth place in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She was turned over to Cox this year after being bought for $280,000 at Keeneland's November sale by Qatar Racing and Flurry Racing. Her four starts this year include a victory in Oaklawn Park's Grade 3 Honeybee, third in the Grade 3 Fantasy and then a six-length, front-running romp in a Churchill Downs allowance race.

“She ran a huge one,” Cox said. “We were looking just to get a race in her between the Fantasy and wherever we ended up, which ended up being the Indiana Oaks. She worked well all winter when we picked her up, and she's just continued to improve all winter, all spring and into the summer. If she shows up, she'll be tough.”

Shedaresthedevil should be in the Sept. 4 Kentucky Oaks “as long as she's happy and healthy and in good form,” he said.

“Shared Sense has a long way to go,” he continued. “He would need to pull it off on Wednesday and probably do a little more for the Godolphin team to want to try the Derby. That's up to them. But he's a nice horse. We've always thought he was a horse who could pick up the pieces in a big race. We're going into a big race with a live shot. He's an honest horse. He's going to need to take a step forward Wednesday, and I think he can.”

Live racing continues through Wednesday, Nov. 18. Action is held Monday through Thursday beginning at 2:20 p.m. Post times for the all-Quarter Horse programs is to be determined.

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Baytown Bear First Winner for Upstart

Baytown Bear (Upstart) cruised to a 9 3/4-length victory to become the first winner for his freshman sire Upstart (Flatter) at Indiana Grand Tuesday. The gray gelding, who RNA’d for $9,500 as a Keeneland September yearling, was well-beaten in a pair of efforts sprinting at Churchill Downs, over the main track May 22 and over the turf June 5, and was coming off a fourth-place effort going 5 1/2 furlongs over the dirt in Louisville June 12.

Sent off the 9-5 second choice in this stretch-out to a mile, Baytown Bear was floated wide around the first turn and pressed the pace while three wide. He raced in tandem with 1-5 favorite Onenightstandards (Archarcharch) through fractions of :24.71 and :45.91. The two favorites turned for home well in front of the rest of the field and Onenightstandards began inching clear despite drifting out. The favorite suddenly bolted to the outside rail with a furlong to run, leaving Baytown Bear in total isolation to the finish.

Baytown Bear is out of And You Can, a half-sister to GI Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can (Proud Citizen). The mare, in foal to American Freedom, sold for $12,000 at this year’s Keeneland January sale. She produced a colt by that sire this spring and also has a yearling filly by Creative Cause. Click for the Equibase.com chart.

1st-Indiana Grand, $31,000, Msw, 7-7, 2yo, 1m, 1:43.54, ft.

BAYTOWN BEAR (g, 2, Upstart–And You Can, by Istan) Lifetime Record: 4-1-0-0, $25,490. O-McEntee Racing, Inc.; B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Paul McEntee. *$9,500 RNA Ylg ’19 KEESEP.

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