Indiana | Horse Racing Free Tips

Indiana Grand To Implement Jockey Restrictions Beginning Monday, June 15

Indiana Grand Racecourse is working diligently to ensure the safety and well-being of all those involved with the current racing season, which began Monday, June 15. After consultation with the Indiana Horse Racing Commission (IHRC), all jockeys accepting a mount at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino will agree to ride exclusively at the facility. This restriction goes into effect Friday, July 10, 2020 and applies to both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse jockeys.

If a jockey that is currently riding at Indiana Grand enters another jockey's quarters at another racetrack, he or she will not be allowed to return to Indiana Grand without self-quarantining for 14 days. After that time period, the jockey will be required to submit a negative COVID-19 test. This policy will remain in effect until further notice. Jockeys who wish to move their tack to Indiana Grand must also go through the 14-day quarantine and provide a negative Covid-19 test before they will be accepted to ride.

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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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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$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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