Marina’s Legacy eyes 3-peat

Like a comforting family sitcom rerun, Marina’s Legacy will take her spot in the $100,000 Florence Henderson Stakes on Tuesday at Indiana Grand.

Marina’s Legacy won this 1 1/16-mile grass race for Indiana-bred fillies and mares by 1 1/4 lengths in 2017 and won it by nearly four lengths last summer, and she’ll be a shorter price than her 5-2 morning line to make it three straight Hendersons.

The $100,000 A.J. Foyt Stakes, Tuesday’s co-feature? That’s more like discomfiting experimental theater.

Another Indiana-bred turf route, this one sex-unrestricted, the Foyt has Wholelotachocolate as the 3-1 morning-line favorite, but playing this horse at this price requires a whole lot of confidence in trainer Tom Amoss. That’s not a bad position to take, generally, since Amoss has a 27 percent strike rate at this marathon Indiana meet, but Wholelotachocolate’s five-start career includes one two-turn start and zero turf races. Wholelotachocolate did win his route race, but he got loose on the lead and beat only three rivals.

Rebel Bull, second in the 2018 Foyt, makes it onto the line as the 9-2 second choice, despite the fact he hasn’t raced since December and at press time showed no official workouts since May (something will have to show up on that front for the horse to start). More likely to be second choice and possibly even favored is Mystery Unbridled, who has scored back-to-back, front-running Indiana Grand turf-route wins. Yes, those races came at the $16,000 claiming and $16,000 starter-allowance class, but the move to statebred-restricted competition isn’t a monumental class jump. Of greater concern regarding Mystery Unbridled is his ability to maintain career-best form for a third start in a row, and it could pay to dig deeper in the Foyt.

Bizerk won the 2018 Foyt, but though he has several excuses this season, his form this summer just isn’t close to as good as last year’s. The plays are Rocky Rush and Aristomaches. Rocky Rush never has run in a stakes race, much less win one, but high-percentage trainer Cipriano Contreras claimed this 4-year-old two starts ago and got a solid fifthplace finish out him when switching Rocky Rush from dirt to turf last out in an open $25,000 claimer. He’s come back with two five-furlong drills and is listed at odds of 20-1. Aristomaches, a tough-trip fifth in last year’s Foyt, has made but three starts this season, two of which came on dirt, the third an Indiana-bred turf allowance win.

Marina’s Legacy’s price won’t entice, but she’s solid. She got a little tired late in her 2019 comeback start, still finishing a solid second to a capable winner, and easily beat open allowance rivals in her most recent start. She’s a front-running mare but will rate behind a horse or two in a pinch and on her day just is faster than her opponents.

Miss Artie could slightly boost the exacta as a 20-1 morning-line price. Second in the 2018 Henderson, she was a one-paced sixth in her most recent start, but easily can rebound to a performance level high enough for an exotics finish.