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Calhoun Chasing Repeat In Wednesday’s Indiana Derby

Two years ago Bret Calhoun captured the $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby with Mr. Money at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino. The trainer will try to top that this year, shooting for a sweep in Wednesday's Indiana Derby with Mr. Wireless and the $200,000, Grade 3 Indiana Oaks with Lovely Ride.

First post is 2:25 p.m. EDT for the 12-race card, with the Indiana Oaks (race 11) scheduled for 7:43 p.m. and the Indiana Derby for 8:25 p.m.

Like Mr. Money, Lovely Ride is owned by the Allied Racing Stable of Madisonville, Ky., entrepreneur Chester Thomas.

Calhoun's two 3-year-olds come in with somewhat similar form, both having raced four times and improving with each start.

Mr. Wireless, a son of 2011 Florida Derby winner Dialed In and out of a mare by the deceased Super Derby winner Arch, finished fifth in his debut sprinting. Put in longer races, Mr. Wireless won both an Oaklawn Park maiden and allowance race by a nose, then was second in the Texas Derby by three-quarters of a length at 14-1.

“He loved the two turns,” Calhoun said recently at Churchill Downs. “Really impressive races. He's a very, very gutsy horse. He's got a lot of try to him. He ran very well in the Texas Derby, a sloppy mess there. He got away just a hair tardy and that put him in bad position going into the first turn. He got fanned pretty wide and got beat a half-length or so. I think if a couple of things here and there had gone a little different that he might have won. He was good enough to win that race. We're hopeful he can step up a little bit and fit in these graded stakes.”

By contrast, Mr. Money had already won a pair of graded stakes at Churchill Downs before coming to Indiana Grand.

“Obviously Mr. Money was a much more proven horse going into the Indiana Derby,” Calhoun said. “I trained this horse's half-sister, and that family develops a little later. They're a little slow maturing physically. I think you'll see more and more from this horse in the future. He's going to get better and better.”

Lovely Ride was a well-beaten second in her debut racing 4 1/2 furlongs at Lone Star Park. She followed with a professional maiden victory and even better-looking allowance triumph at Sam Houston before taking a Churchill Downs' second-level allowance by 6 1/2 lengths. Off that, Bill Downes has made Lovely Ride the 4-1 third choice in the Indiana Oaks' field of eleven 3-year-old fillies, behind favored Kentucky Oaks third-place finisher Will's Secret and Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks winner Soothsay.

“Interesting filly,” Calhoun said of Lovely Ride. “Very pretty filly that's got quite a bit of pedigree. We started her off at Lone Star, and she was just an average second that day. She had some issues bugging her at the time, so we gave her plenty of time off. She was a little bit immature physically as well. We started her back on an easier trail. Ran her at Houston, and she ran very well. So, we brought her to Churchill, and we felt pretty good about our chances going into the allowance race.

“I know she'd never faced anybody, really, and been running on a much softer circuit. Nobody gave her much of a chance here. There were some pretty good fillies in there, been running in graded stakes, coming in thirds and fourths. It was a very good test for her, and she passed with flying colors. So, we're pretty hopeful she can step up in graded-stakes company as well. She hasn't done much wrong in her life, and she's thriving right now.”

Among the fillies Lovely Ride defeated in her last start was Indiana Oaks contender Moon Swag, who before that was third in the Fair Grounds' Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes and fourth in Keeneland's Grade 1 Ashland.

Thomas purchased the Tiznow broodmare Lovely Lil while she was carrying Lovely Ride, making him the breeder of record.

“Everybody says I don't know how to spell patience,” he said with a laugh. “But I have patience with my horses and know they need time here and there. So, we gave her the right time, brought her back nice and easy. She annihilated the field, not once but twice before we brought her to Kentucky to do the two-turn thing. That was a nice race she won at Churchill.

“We're excited to be going to Indiana. We got lucky and won the Indiana Derby. Now we can hopefully get lucky and win the Indiana Oaks. That would be pretty cool. It's going to be nice to be back at the track, now that things have opened up again.”

Thomas said he was offered “some pretty serious money” for Lovely Ride after her last victory.

“I felt like she had bigger and better things to do, that she would accomplish,” he said. “So, we decided to hang on to her. Hopefully we made the right decision. We're very hopeful she'll win a graded stakes. That goes hand in fist. When you start winning graded stakes versus allowance races, especially with fillies, they become more and more valuable. It's already worthwhile. Bret calls them my pets, but it's always nice to see these homebreds do well.”

Gabe Saez, who rode Mr. Money, has the mount on Lovely Ride. Ramon Vazquez rides Mr. Wireless.

Stewart brings in Oaks favorite Will's Secret; excited to see how Starrininmydreams stacks up in Derby

Willis Horton Racing's Will's Secret is the 5-2 favorite in the $200,000, Grade 3 Indiana Oaks off a pair of thirds in the Kentucky Oaks and Keeneland's Ashland Stakes, Grade 1 success that followed her winning Oaklawn Park's Grade 3 Honeybee and the Martha Washington. She breaks from the rail, with 3-1 second choice Soothsay, the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks winner, to her immediate right in the starting gate.

“The filly ran third in the Oaks and she's training well. So, we're excited about running her there,” said trainer Dallas Stewart. “There are going to be some nice fillies in there. (But) she's run against the best. She's shipped around and run well.”

Will's Secret is a daughter of the Three Chimneys Farm stallion Will Take Charge, the 3-year-old champion of 2013 for Horton.

Stewart co-bred and co-owns Indiana Derby candidate Starrininmydreams in partnership with WinStar Farm under a foal-sharing arrangement. Stewart owns the mare, Boy Crazy, while WinStar provided the breeding to 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver.

“He ran third in the Lexington (at Keeneland), and he just got outrun in the Pat Day Mile,” Stewart said. “But our horse is nice, and he's trained well. We're excited to see how he matches up.”

Boy Crazy, whom Stewart trained and co-owned with a client, ran only once, finishing fifth in the $30,000 maiden-claiming race. She's been far more successful as a broodmare.

While getting into the breeding side of the horse industry has been known to bust a trainer, Stewart has done well. Boy Crazy produced Saint's Fan, who won a $100,000 Louisiana-bred stakes, and $211,107-earner Diamond Crazy, also a Louisiana-bred.

“We just did it for fun, like with one horse,” he said of his family, whose band of three broodmares includes a sister to Boy Crazy. “We started off in the Louisiana program. (Boy Crazy) has just been phenomenal for us.”

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‘Versatile’ Fulsome Records Final Workout Before Indiana Derby

Juddmonte Farms' Fulsome turned in his final workout for the $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby on July 7, cruising five-eighths of a mile in 1:00.80 under jockey Florent Geroux shortly after the Churchill Downs track opened at 5:30 Wednesday morning.

“He did great. It was just maintenance,” Geroux said afterward. “He went 48 and 1:01, so he's doing good. We'll see how the race shapes up.”

The Brad Cox-trained Fulsome started his career with four turf races, winning a maiden race and finishing fourth in a stakes in New Orleans, before impressively capturing his dirt debut when a Keeneland allowance race came off the turf. He is now 3-for-3 on dirt, following up with Arkansas' $300,000 Oaklawn Stakes on Kentucky Derby Day and Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Matt Winn.

“He transferred over to the dirt well in April at Keeneland,” said Cox, perennially among Indiana Grand's leading trainers. “I'm glad it came off the turf; it was in the mud. He gave us the confidence to press forward on the dirt, so it's been very rewarding this spring.”

Cox said they were looking both at the grass and the two-turn mile distances available in turf maiden races when Fulsome began his career.

“A little bit of both. He just never shined a whole lot early on when he was chasing Mandaloun around there last fall,” he said with a laugh in reference to Juddmonte's Kentucky Derby runner-up. “It took him a little while to come to hand. He's not a real big horse, and I thought the grass might be a little kinder on him, that he could handle it a little better. He ran well on the grass, but he definitely has stepped up on the dirt.”

In the Matt Winn, Fulsome beat O Besos, one of his Indiana Derby rivals. O Besos, who finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby, is ridden by Indiana Grand's meet-leader Marcelino Pedroza.

“He ran a good race at Churchill,” Geroux said. “He was going to go by him (O Besos) pretty easily at the end. I was kind of tracking him all the way. He had a very nice turn of foot that day. Hopefully he can repeat and do the same thing at Indiana.”

Geroux rode Fulsome in his first three starts on grass.

“I think he's probably a touch better on the dirt,” he said. “He was not very quick. So Brad and Juddmonte didn't feel there was a great need to sprint him on the dirt, having him all the way back and eating dirt. So that's why he ran a few times on the turf, around two turns. And when he was ready to take on the dirt, they switched him over and he's been pretty good since then. His numbers show he's better on dirt, but I think he's very versatile. He can be close up to the pace and also be farther back — and he's good on both surfaces.”

Geroux and Cox, the 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer, teamed to sweep last year's Indiana Derby with Shared Sense and Indiana Oaks with Shedaresthedevil, who in her next start won the Kentucky Oaks. Now they'll try to repeat with Fulsome and Oaks contender Marion Francis, winner of a Churchill Downs allowance race in her last start.

“It was great last year,” Geroux said. “We brought some nice horses over there. It's easier when you're the favorite, or one of the favorites, to win these types of races. But it looks like he should be the favorite for the Indiana Derby. I don't know who's coming, but my guess is that he would be the favorite.”

The Grade 3 Indiana Derby will be joined by five other stakes on the card, bringing stakes purses for the day to $840,000. The Indiana Derby will be slated as the 12th race on the card with an estimated post time of 8:25 p.m. The Grade 3 Indiana Oaks will be carded as Race 11 with an estimated post time of 7:43 p.m.

The 19th season of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing is now in progress and continues through Monday, Nov. 8. Live racing is conducted at 2:25 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, with first post on Thursday set at 3:25 p.m. A special Indiana Champions Day highlighting the state's top Thoroughbred and Quarter Horses will be held Saturday, Oct. 30, beginning at noon. More information about the 2021 racing season is available at www.caesars.com/indiana-grand.

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O Besos Camp ‘Really Confident’ Heading Into Indiana Derby

Trainer Greg Foley has been on a roll, and he hopes that translates into O Besos rolling into the $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby winner's circle at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino on July 7.

O Besos, who finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and second in Churchill Downs' Matt Winn (G2), had his final serious training move Tuesday morning at the Louisville track. With Indiana Grand's meet-leader Marcelino Pedroza aboard, the chestnut colt powered five-eighths of a mile in 1:00.20 in company right after the track opened for training at 5:30. The work was designed to start at the half-mile pole and end at the seven-eighths pole past the wire.

“I put a horse with him just to get him to focus and have a good work,” Foley said. “I wanted a good, solid work this morning, a good gallop out. The other horse broke off probably two, three lengths in front — a little further than I intended to — but it went great. They didn't go real quick the first quarter. But the half went in 48 (seconds), the five-eighths in a minute-and-change and three-quarters in 1:12-and-two, I believe. The jock liked it a lot. He said, 'We're ready to go.'”

Pedroza confirmed that assessment.

“He galloped out just like he was before the Derby, galloped out really strong,” he said. “I'm really confident in him now, the way he worked today. I like him a lot.”

Foley's horses won four races in a two-day span during Churchill Downs' closing week, including 2020 Indiana Derby runner-up Major Fed in an allowance race and Bango in the $110,000 Kelly's Landing Stakes as part of a three-bagger on June 25. Two days later, Yes It's Ginger took the $75,000 Chicken Fried Stakes at Lone Star Park near Dallas. Overall, the stable won 10 races, with another 12 seconds, while earning more than $1 million in purses at the recently concluded Churchill meet.

Asked if he believes in mojo, Foley said, “I really do. When it's going good, it's just funny the way things go. It just seems like you can't do anything wrong. And when it goes the other way — I've been on the end of that, too — it just seems like you can't do anything right. But right now, we're rolling along. We've got some good horses, though, the best I've had in a long time. That helps more than anything.”

Foley is hoping that O Besos can top last year's second-place finish by Major Fed in the Indiana Derby won by Shared Sense. O Besos already has improved on Major Fed's 10th in the 2020 Kentucky Derby.

O Besos will again face Matt Winn victor Fulsome, trained by 2020 Indiana Derby winner Brad Cox.

“We're going over there to run good,” Foley said. “We're not just going over there to run. The horse that beat us in the Matt Winn is going to be over there, so we've got to turn the tables on him.

“I thought our horse was a little keen that day, a little wired up for some reason. We've been working on that, to get him to relax a little more. That's kind of why we wanted the company today. Marcelino said he did that really well, finished up the work good and galloped out really good.”

Trainer Bret Calhoun also worked his Indiana Derby horse (Mr Wireless) and Indiana Oaks filly (Lovely Ride) very early Tuesday at Churchill. Calhoun wasn't wanting either horse to do much, and he got his wish. Lovely Ride, going first, was clocked going an easy half-mile in 50.60 seconds. Mr. Wireless went more leisurely, to where the move was more of a “two-minute lick” than a workout, which Calhoun said was fine with him.

Gabriel Saez was aboard both horses. He rides Allied Racing's Lovely Ride in the Indiana Oaks, where she seeks her fourth straight victory while making her stakes debut. Mr. Wireless comes into the Indiana Derby off of a close second in the Texas Derby under Ramon Vazquez, who will ride him at Indiana Grand.

“We intended it to be pretty easy,” Calhoun, who won the 2019 Indiana Derby with Allied Racing's Mr. Money, said of the works. “It was a hot, humid morning. We didn't want much. I think they're both fit and ready.

“Lovely Ride obviously is a bit more aggressive, but a nice easy work. Nice gallop out. Just smooth and easy. Mr Wireless, a little bit of pilot error there. He gets pretty strong going to the pole. Gabe had a pretty good hold on him and he didn't let him do too much this morning, which was fine with me. That horse had some hard races and shipped. So I was happy with everything.”

Fulsome will have his final workout Wednesday morning.

“He's coming up to this race real well,” Cox said. “He's going to breeze (Wednesday) and will ship up probably Sunday evening. But we're very pleased with how he's training.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Pearl Tiara Brings Her Small-Scale Breeders Full Circle

When Loren Hebel-Osborne needed a moment to get her emotions in check, she did what she's always done: she leaned on her horse.

Pearl Tiara gracefully allowed her co-owner and co-breeder to press a kiss to her forehead as they stood in the winner's circle. Perhaps the 3-year-old filly was enjoying the extra attention after she dominated her competition by 8 ¾ lengths in last Wednesday's $75,000 Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes at Indiana Grand.

“I was holding back a really ugly cry,” Hebel-Osborne said Saturday from her home at Deerfield Farm just outside Louisville, Ky. “It was like the release of a pressure valve; some people will understand that. It was this happy, exhausted, just full-circle moment of overwhelming emotion.”

Pearl Tiara's win was so extra-special because she is the first stakes winner for stallion Majestic Harbor, whom Hebel-Osborne and her husband, Kentucky Speaker of the House David Osborne, also campaigned on the racetrack with a group of friends. The couple has worked diligently to support in his burgeoning stallion career, and from a first crop of just 15 foals, Majestic Harbor was the leading first crop sire in California last year.

Of those first 15, the Osbornes foaled out and raised eight babies on their farm. For an operation that typically bred two to three mares in a year, making the jump to eight was a significant financial, emotional, and physically arduous undertaking.

“With all that we've done to support him, seeing him get that first stakes winner, it was just like, 'Oh my gosh, it actually worked,'” Hebel-Osborne said. “Being a small-time breeder, you never know if there's a place for us in this business anymore. It's certainly hard to compete, and we're still fishing in a pretty small pond, but winning that race felt absolutely incredible.

“We have invested over 10,000 hours from planning to utero, etc., and it all came together for this one moment.”

It was also emotional for more personal reasons, Hebel-Osborne acknowledged. This was the first major racing victory since the passing of her father, Charles Hebel, in September of 2020.

“Racing has always been a family affair for us,” she said. “He was a horrible handicapper, the consummate two-dollar bettor, but he loved the family aspect of the game. He was one of the partners in Majestic Harbor so we got to ride the very top of the wave together, and I know he would have loved to have been there for this.”

In fact, Hebel was one of the partners who encouraged his daughter to go out and buy yearlings at the 2009 Keeneland September sale. In hindsight, it was a brilliant idea: the economic crash meant nice horses were selling for rock-bottom prices, and they'd been able to buy horses they could never have afforded otherwise.

At the time, however, going to that sale seemed like a really big risk.

Hebel-Osborne had just lost her job when Visa pulled out of the Triple Crown sponsorship, and the state of the economy meant the prospect of new employment was much more challenging. Still, both her parents and her husband helped put together a group of friends to buy some horses, and off they went to Keeneland.

They would end up buying six yearlings that year, including a colt by Rockport Harbor for $20,000 and a filly by Mineshaft for $22,000. Years later, those two would become the parents of Pearl Tiara.

All six were brought home to Deerfield after the sale, where they enjoyed lush pastures, personalized attention, and careful mentorship by the Osbornes' retired racehorses.

The Rockport Harbor colt was nicknamed “Rocky,” and was later registered as Majestic Harbor. He flashed talent as a 2-year-old, enough that a potential sale was brokered, but on the morning of his veterinary exam Rocky got loose at the Fair Grounds and slid into a dumpster, winding up with enough road rash and bumps and bruises to negate the sale.

The Osbornes would be glad he did, even if it took a few more years to achieve his maximum potential.

It wasn't until 2014, at the age of six, that Majestic Harbor achieved the pinnacle of his career when triumphing at 14-1 odds in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita. Majestic Harbor continued to race until age eight, compiling a record of 10 wins, eight seconds, and seven thirds from 42 starts with earnings over $1.2 million.

Majestic Harbor wins the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 28, 2014.

“He was so sound for so long, and that's the kind of horse we want to support as breeders,” Hebel-Osborne said. “We also breed for disposition, and he has the best brain and seems to be passing that on to his foals.”

Majestic Harbor stood his first season in 2017 at Swifty Farms in Indiana, siring 13 fillies from his 15-strong first crop. After his second year, Majestic Harbor moved to Harris Farms in California for the 2019 breeding season.

Last year, with his first foals racing as 2-year-olds, Majestic Harbor earned the leading first crop sire title in California. He did so without siring a stakes winner in 2020, though Pearl Tiara and another Majestic Harbor filly, Diamond Solitaire, in whom the Osbornes are also co-owners and breeders, both raced well as juveniles.

This year's statistics seem to show that his runners are getting better with age, as Pearl Tiara and Diamond Solitaire ran one-two in Wednesday's stakes race. Pearl Tiara is trained by Tim Glyshaw, who also trained the Osbornes' Unreachable Star, the record-setting Indiana-bred who also has a stakes race named after him.

“Having Pearl (Tiara) and Diamond (Solitaire) finish one-two in the stakes race for Majestic Harbor is a thrill,” said Hebel-Osborne. “And, this is the first time Pearl has beaten Diamond. We saw Diamond start moving toward her and thought she might catch her, but Pearl said, 'Not today.'”

Hebel-Osborne reflected on the risks they'd taken to support Majestic Harbor. They'd purchased new mares to breed to the stallion. They'd had to build additional stalls to accommodate the increased number of mares and foals, and even borrowed a few stalls and pastures from the sporthorse farm next door. They'd hired additional help, and she and her husband spent countless hours performing barn chores themselves.

When he moved to California, the Osbornes divided their mares and sent some to Harris Farms along with him, launching their first California-bred operation. Of course, every winter when Indiana Grand shuts down for the season, the Osbornes have brought their racing stock home to Deerfield to give them a vacation.

Pearl Tiara and Diamond Solitaire even spent the winter racing each other around the same paddock.

The risks have paid off, with Majestic Harbor doing his part to make a name for himself in the breeding shed.

“I'm not talking down about our mares, but there's no Serena's Song out there in our pastures,” David Osborne said. “If he can do this with the stock that he's gotten, I just think that says a lot about his ability.”

Looking to the future, the Osbornes are entertaining the idea of bringing Majestic Harbor back to Kentucky, where his racing longevity might be attractive to local breeders.

In the meantime, things at Deerfield have scaled back a bit. Four yearlings stand in the paddocks from last year's breeding season, and just one foal is racing around her mother's legs.

As it had been for most of the world, the pandemic had been a season filled with challenges both personal and professional for the Osbornes. Besides the struggles of working through a legislative session with COVID-19 restrictions, Hebel-Osborne faced the unknowns of scheduling sporting events through her job as a sales executive for QuintEvents.

This year, the Osbornes lost a mare and her Majestic Harbor foal to a difficult birth in February, while another mare delivered a dead foal.

Along with the loss of Hebel-Osborne's father last fall, the couple lost both of their beloved Corgis in just 12 months.

Life circles on, and Hebel-Osborne opened her heart to a beautiful German Shepherd puppy named Kayzie in November. A graduate of the Paws Behind Bars program at Bluegrass Adoption, Kayzie has enthusiastically taken up her role as head of security at Deerfield.

Even Osborne, who said he wasn't quite ready for another dog, seems to have found plenty of room in his heart for Kayzie's loveable antics as she learned about farm dog life.

“This can be a tough business,” Hebel-Osborne concluded. “But when you have days like that (Wednesday at Indiana Grand), it makes everything seem worth it. I know my dad was cheering us on.”

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