Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez has ridden horses all over the world. Until Saturday, he’d never ridden one at Horseshoe Indianapolis, where Velazquez capped a three-stakes afternoon piloting Tip Top Thomas to a half-length victory in the track’s biggest race, the Grade 3, $300,000 Indiana Derby.
Racing over an intensely speed-biased and extremely fast-playing main track, Tip Top Thomas pressed 50-1 longshot Master Controller around the first turn and onto the backstretch, went head and head with his overmatched rival to the half-mile pole, took command around the second bend, and then turned away all challengers to post his first stakes win.
Tip Top Thomas shipped from New York for trainer Todd Pletcher, whose last Indiana Derby runner came in 2013. Pletcher’s race selection was optimal with a fifth-time starter who’d been second in the grade 1 Champagne last year at age 2.
The Champagne’s a one-turn mile, as was the first-level allowance Tip Top Thomas won sharply on May 25 at Aqueduct, but Horseshoe Indiana plays to fast horses who might not truly be route material, the quarter pole coming well before the end of the second turn, the homestretch barely three-sixteenths of a mile long.
Regardless, Tip Top Thomas might have won over two miles on this racing surface: No horse in the day’s first six dirt races had come from more than a length or two off the pace, and front-runners were not stopping.
Tip Top Thomas broke a half-beat slow, and Velazquez said he asked his mount for a couple strides to keep Big Truzz, directly to his outside, from crossing in front of him. That worked, and as Master Controller sped off to the lead, Velazquez positioned Tip Top Thomas second, just off the leader’s flank. The half-mile split went in a fast 46.01 – but every fraction and final time on this card was fast.
“He was doing it comfortably even though they were going quick,” Velazquez said.
Coal Battle, passively ridden from third along the inside going to the five-furlong marker, was forced to pick up his pace when Big Truzz launched a wide bid approaching the half-mile pole. Master Controller was done, but Tip Top Thomas had company to his outside, Velazquez encouraging his mount just enough to hold the lead. Velazquez, endeavoring every step to save as much horse as he could, eased Tip Top Thomas into the homestretch, went to a left-handed crop, and got a good enough response from his mount to keep everyone at bay.
Coal Battle finished second, three quarters of a length ahead of 59-1 shot Brotha Kenny, who ground his way from eighth into the show spot. Publisher just missed third with a tough trip, making a sharp rail move at the three-eighths pole to get into a contending position just behind Tip Top Thomas, then never finding room to run in the homestretch. Instant Replay stumbled at the start, a bad beginning on a track surface like this, raced wide throughout and bid mildly for fifth. Big Truzz, tepidly favored at 2-1 in his two-turn debut, started losing position in upper stretch and checked in sixth, beating only Master Controller, a distant last.
Tip Top Thomas, for what it’s worth, set a track record for 1 1/16 miles, 1:41.15, and paid $7.40 as the third choice. Pletcher trains Tip Top Thomas, a son of Volatile and the Consolidator mare Attempt to Name, for James Bakke and Gerald Isbister. The colt was bred in Kentucky by Wynnstay, Donna Moore, and Jim Richardson, and sold as a yearling for $160,000.
Velazquez has ridden three Derby winners, four winners at Royal Ascot, and won the Dubai World Cup. Saturday, his first afternoon in Shelbyville, Ind., he won two listed stakes and then took down the Indiana Derby.
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