SHELBYVILLE, Ind. (Sept. 4, 2019) – It was a fight to the finish between four horses as they battled their way to the wire in tight quarters. Although Spectacular Gem got the head nod at the finish, a disqualification placed Corruze and Corey Lanerie into the winning spot in the 14th running of the $200,000-guaranteed Caesars Stakes Wed. Sept. 4 at Indiana Grand. The final time of the one-mile race, which is Indiana’s richest turf race, was 1:38.01.
Clint Maroon and Channing Hill made a bid for the top spot from the starting gate, but they were quickly challenged by Spectacular Gem and Declan Cannon, who eventually took control of the race heading down the backside. Jockey Malcolm Franklin had a big hold on Imperial Mission, who sat to the outside in third through the early stages of the race.
Around the final turn, Crafty Daddy and Florent Geroux made a big move toward the leaders as Spectacular Gem held his ground for the stretch drive. Four horses locked up in a stretch duel with Spectacular Gem on the inside and Corruze on the outside. Crafty Daddy was to his inside while Clint Maroon was keeping in the race next to Spectacular Gem. As the finish line neared, all four horses were right there together in tight quarters as Spectacular Gem put a nose in front of Corruze, who was a head in front of Crafty Daddy for third over Clint Maroon for fourth before the disqualification took place and moved Spectacular Gem to fourth place.
Owned by Chris Wilkins of Oklahoma City, Corruze earned his first stakes win in his sixth career start. The Into Mischief colt, who was a $280,000 purchase at the Keeneland Yearling Sale, now has in excess of $178,000 in career earnings. Chris Hartman trains the lightly raced Corruze.
“This was his (Corruze) second time around two turns,” said Wilkins, who is retired from Koch in Wichita, Kansas. “The first time, he never relaxed and fought the rider the entire way. We were confident he could get two turns and he showed us that today.”
Wilkins, who is a former trainer, got out of the business due to his career responsibilities at Koch. After his retirement, he had decided to buy a horse and get back into the ownership end of the industry. With the intent of buying one horse, Wilkins now has five horses in training and has found great success with his stakes-winning sprinter Wilbo, who has in excess of $745,000 in career earnings and 11 career wins.
“We have a couple of higher end horses including Corruze and my wife (Clare) and I try to make it to all their races,” added Wilkins. “We’ve only missed one of Corruze’s races because we were on vacation. And, we didn’t really miss it because we were sitting in a beach chair watching the race on our phone.”
As far as the next start for Corruze, the partnership of Wilkins and Hartman have a plan.
“We felt this horse had the ability, but he never put it down on the track,” said Hartman. “We’ve had him since he was a baby and we’ve been high on him. The plan all along is to go to the Jefferson Cup, which is a one and an eighth at Churchill Downs this fall. We will stick with that if he comes out of this race okay.”
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