Trainer Brad Cox said he’d seen enough of Encino racing on dirt. After Encino won the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths on Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis, Cox might want to see more of him on turf.
Making his grass debut, Encino showed his customary positional pace and then displayed a nice turn of foot in collaring pacesetter Runaway Storm before the furlong grounds and going on to a comfortable victory in the $101,650 Schuster.
Encino gave Cox a second undercard stakes win after Alpine Princess raced wire to wire winning the $100,000 Marie Hulman George, a dirt route for older fillies and mares, at an even shorter price than heavily favored Encino.
Willy D’s continued the parade of favorites in the $102,400 Donald Schaefer Memorial, shrugging off a host of pacepressers while also leading from start to finish over a speed-biased main track.
His victory gave jockey John Velazquez and trainer Mike Maker a stakes double, Dana’s Beauty having won the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff kicking of the Saturday stakes action.
The only non-favorite in the stakes sequence, Dana’s Beauty paid $8.10 to win. She ran 1 1/16 miles on a blazingly fast turf course in 1:39.57, an exceedingly fast time, yet not as fast as the 1:39.38, a course record, that Encino posted. Seven-year-old Dana’s Beauty won her 13th start and surpassed $1 million earnings. Maker trains her for Resolute Racing, and Dana’s Beauty is a daughter of Not This Time and City Siren, by City Zip.
The General Assembly Distaff proved the most competitive of the four open undercard stakes, Strikingly Spun running home from last to miss by a neck, with pacesetting 11-10 favorite She’s Lookin Lucky another neck back in third.
Runaway Storm had no answer for Encino but did hold second in the Schuster by 1 1/2 lengths over Money Supply. The race went with a surprisingly short field for a turf stakes, just five horses racing after a bevy of scratches. Encino, a homebred 4-year-old owned by Godolphin, paid $4.20 to win. A son of Nyquist and Glittering Jewel, by Bernardini, Encino had shown strong synthetic surface form and managed to win a dirt allowance race earlier this year at Fair Grounds, but his last two dirt stakes yielded subpar performances, leading to a successful surface switch.
Track records fell on dirt, too, Willy D’s setting a mark for one mile, 70 yards in winning the Schaefer in 1:37.98 – though, oddly, no half-mile split was recorded in the Schaefer. Up by one length at the stretch call, Willy D’s widened to the wire to win by 4 1/2 over This Is Uscar, who chased Willy D’s all the way and earned second by a half-length over Midnight West. Willy D’s ($5.20) is by Lookin at Lucky out of Boston Mine, by Mineshaft, and was claimed for $50,000 in March by owner Paradise Farms and Maker. A good claim it was, Willy D’s capturing a rich Saratoga allowance before his Saturday stakes win.
Alpine Princess ($3.40) had not raced on the lead her last nine starts, but even by race 6, the Hulman George, it had become clear that leading or sticking close was required for success over the Horseshoe Indy surface. Luann Machado sent Alpine Princess hard from the gate, made the lead before the first turn, and never relinquished it, though Our Pretty Woman in an improved performance held her own through the homestretch, finishing second by one length. It was another 5 1/4 lengths to third-place Cat Cave as Alpine Princess clocked 1:41.24 for 1 1/16 miles, just missing the track record. Four-year-old Alpine Princess, by Classic Empire out of Le Moine, by Curlin, campaigns for Full of Run Racing and Madaket Stable.
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