SHELBYVILLE, Ind. (Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022) – Max Express and Geovanni Franco have been on the fast track in recent races. The duo earned their second straight stakes title Wednesday, Oct. 5 in the 25th running of the $150,000 To Much Coffee Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The stakes began in 1998 and was named after one of the first standout Indiana breds, To Much Coffee, who was a multiple stakes winner before retiring in 2017.
Max Express was not fast out of the gate. He trailed the majority of the field of 10 in the early stages of the one and one-sixteenth mile event. Nobody Listens and Gabriel Saez took advantage of an inside post and moved out for the early lead but were immediately joined by Hazel Rah and Kendal Sterritt heading into the first turn.
Down the backstretch, Nobody Listens was not going to let Hazel Rah get the best of him and the two fought each other through the half and into the final turn. Both horses pulled away from the remainder of the field, which left some open gaps for horses from the back of the pack to begin accelerating toward the lead. Max Express was one of those that found a seam along the inside that put him in better striking position after the halfway marker.
In the stretch, Max Express had angled to the center of the track and once he had straightened up, he moved into another gear, sprinting by the leaders to show the way to the wire. Max Express was a winner by two and three-quarter lengths over Nobody Listens on the inside. His stablemate, Mowins, rallied up late on the outside for jockey Gerardo Corrales to finish third, giving Trainer Mike Lauer a first and third finish in the event.
“I wasn’t sure if they were going fast up front,” said Franco, who is closing in on 1,000 career wins. “He was picking them up early, and Max (Express) never gave up on his stride. I couldn’t get in the horse’s way. He was doing well, and I was happy to get here (to the winner’s circle).”
Max Express paid $10.80 for the win. The six-year-old son of Unbridled Express now has seven career wins in 45 career starts with earnings of more than $475,000 for his connections. The grey gelding was bred by Mike and Penny Lauer and is now owned by Penny, Tim Clary and Mike Johnson’s Falcon Racing Stable. His mother, Mor Trust, raced for the Lauers in 2010 before heading to the brood mare ranks at their farm in Finchville, Kentucky. Both Mike and Penny Lauer hold records for training and owning stakes winners in the state of Indiana over the past two decades.
Franco, a multiple Graded Stakes winning jockey, adds Max Express to a list of impressive winners he has had in recent years, including Lieutenant Dan, who he finished second on in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint last year. A native of Mexico City, he rode on the West Coast and in Canada before venturing to the Midwest tracks in recent years.
Photos by Coady Photography
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