Oaklawn-raced stars vie in Indiana, Delaware

Following major races in Ohio and Iowa, horse racing’s 3-year-old male division spins further on a Midwest axis with the Grade

3 $500,000 Indiana Derby Saturday night. Mr. Money, a two-time Grade 3 winner at Churchill Downs for trainer Bret Calhoun, is the expected favorite in the mile-and-sixteenth race on the main track. Horse Racing Nation lists the Goldencents colt at 2-1 despite its outside post position in the field of 11. Gabriel Saez rides Mr. Money, winner of the Pat Day Mile on the May 4 Kentucky Derby undercard and the Matt Winn June

15 on Churchill’s Stephen Foster program. Post time at Indiana Grand is 9:02 p.m. CDT.

Oaklawn Park is represented in the Indiana Derby by four horses with Math Wizard and Long Range Toddy second and third, respectively, in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby June 22. Long Range Toddy, owned by Willis Horton of Marshall, won the first division of Oaklawn’s Grade 2 Rebel March 18, handing Bob Baffert-trained Grade 1 winner Improbable his first defeat. Jon Court keeps the mount on the Take Charge Indy colt, a troubled 16th in the Kentucky Derby, for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Math Wizard comes off a strong second to Brad Cox-trained Owendale in the Ohio Derby after placing fourth in the Oaklawn Invitational May 4. Edgard Zayas rides Algorigthms’ son for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Roiland, trained by Tom Amoss, was fifth and Chess Chief (Dallas Stewart) sixth in

the Oaklawn Invitational, won by Arkansas-owned Laughing Fox.

Another weekend race with strong Oaklawn connections is Saturday’s Grade 2 $750,000 Delaware Handicap, the main event of the Delaware Park season. Elate. a multiple Grade 1 winner for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, defends her title going a mile and a quarter in the 82nd DelCap. The 5-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro comes off a Grade 2 victory in Churchill Downs’ Fleur de Lis June 15. Oaklawn fans know her as a hard-trying but non-winning local performer of the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap and Grade 2 Azeri this year.

Elate, with Jose Ortiz up and high-weighted at 122 pounds, is the early 7-5 choice from post seven in a field of nine.

“She is doing very well,” Mott said. “She won the Fleur de Lis and ran a great race. She finished well, made the lead inside the eighth pole and was drawing away at the end. It was a very useful race and it seemed like the nine furlongs seemed to suit her much better than the previous two times at a mile and a sixteenth.

“We are certainly looking forward to running her back in the Delaware Handicap at 10 furlongs.”

Escape Clause outfinished Elate when second to Midnight Bisou in the Apple Blossom May 5. The 5-year-old Manitoba-bred has trained at Delaware Park since fourth to Midnight Bisou in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps June 8. Tyler Baze keeps the mount from post three with Escape Clause carrying 119 pounds.

“We have shipped to more than 10 different racetracks,” said owner-trainer Don Schnell, “and while she has run well at all of them, I hope being here for a month in advance will finally give us a little bit of a home-field advantage. It seems like she loves the track.”