Story by Jennie Rees, Eclipse Award winning turf writer
SHELBYVILLE, Ind. (July 11, 2019) – The two-hour ship from Churchill Downs to Indiana Grand for Saturday night’s $500,000 Indiana Derby should feel like a mere sprint to Gray Magician, runner-up in the $2.5 million UAE Derby in Dubai.
After starting his career out in Southern California, the 3-year-old dark gun-metal gray trekked to Maryland and back, to Dubai and back and then to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. But Gray Magician has been able to stay and chill at Churchill since coming for the first leg of the Triple Crown.
“I feel good,” trainer Peter Miller, who has been increasing his presence in Kentucky this year, said by phone from California. “The horse is training very forwardly. If he runs his A game, I think we’ll be right there.”
Gray Magician, a son of Graydar, is the 10-1 fifth choice in the field of 11. He’ll break from post 3 and be ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr. for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile, Grade 3 Indiana Derby.
“Best available rider,” Miller said of the jockey selection. “He’s obviously a great rider. Any time you can get Santana on a horse, you take him. We were lucky he was available.”
Originally owned by trainer Hector Palma, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners bought into Gray Magician after he was third in his first start. After the colt was third behind the well-regarded Improbable in another maiden race, Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel bought out Palma’s share and Gray Magician was sent to Miller.
“We thought two turns would be where he would ultimately excel,” Eclipse president Aron Wellman said of buying Gray Magician privately after his first start. “It just so happens that he ran into a few monsters in maiden races at Del Mar and Santa Anita.”
Gray Magician’s only win to date came on his fourth attempt, first time racing around two turns and as far as a mile and for Miller, taking a Del Mar maiden race by 9 1/2 lengths. He was a respectable fourth in his next start in Santa Anita’s Grade 3 Sham Stakes, a Kentucky Derby points race, fifth in an allowance race in the slop and then second in Laurel’s $100,000 Miracle Wood won by multiple stakes-winner and Indiana Derby contender Alwaysmining.
The trip to Dubai followed, with Gray Magician closing strongly to finish second, three-quarters of a length behind UAE Derby winner Plus Que Parfait.
“He came so close to winning that day,” Wellman said. “It was an agonizing defeat, but it really validated our belief in his overall abilities. We thought that was sort of his Kentucky Derby that day. But he trained so well when he came back home that it was really tough not to shoot for the Run for the Roses.”
As happens every year to many horses, the Kentucky Derby was pretty much a disaster, with Gray Magician never a factor and languishing home 19th of 19. Miller considers the race a throwout.
“The track, the rain, all of it, I think you can just draw a line with it,” Miller said. “We gave him a month off after the race and it seemed to do him a world of good. He’s training very forwardly, so we’re thinking he’s going to run a big race.”
Gray Magician got some R&R at WinStar Farm to recharge his batteries.
“This is where we always thought he’d be come summertime of his 3-year-old year, these lucrative Derbys throughout the country,” Wellman said. “We’re really pleased with where he’s at and hope to get a big slice of the pie on Saturday night.
“He’s been a road warrior and we’ve tried to chase the money a little bit with his campaign of late. WinStar did a fantastic job with him. We just wanted to replenish his energy. He’s really only been in a breeze pattern since the last three-four weeks. But he’s come to hand so rapidly, and worked so impressively, according to Pete’s staff over there that we thought this race was essentially in his backyard. It’s a relatively convenient ship. Look, it’s not an easy race; it’s a very deep race. We have a lot of respect for Mr. Money. He’s clearly the horse to beat. But we think we’ve got a nice, fresh horse on our hands. Time will tell whether the post positions make any difference. But Mr. Money has drawn wide (post 11) and he’s spotting us six pounds. So we’ll take every edge we can get in that respect and hope we make a good account of ourselves.”
Kristufek — the owner and analyst — thinks Eskenforit live longshot
Joe Kristufek’s day job is racing analyst for TwinSpires.com, along with Churchill Downs and the Fair Grounds. He also is one of the founders of the Brilliant Racing partnership, which is running 20-1 shot Eskenforit in the Indiana Derby.
Trained by Churchill Downs-based Steve Margolis, Eskenforit earned his first victory by 8 1/2 lengths on his eighth attempt in a $20,000 maiden-claiming race. In his next start, he was second by a scant nose in a starter-allowance race for horses that had running for a $50,000 claiming price or cheaper. Those performances coincided with Margolis taking off the blinkers.
Now Eskenforit is going up against stakes-winners Mr. Money, Alwaysmining and Long Range Toddy, as well as graded stakes-placed Gray Magician, Math Wizard and Roiland.
Here’s Kristufek, the horse owner:
“Since we’ve taken the blinkers off and he got his confidence up in that maiden win, he’s just become a completely different horse. We thought the timing was right to take a shot and we’ll see how it goes. We can always regroup afterwards. Our partnership couldn’t be any more excited. We’ll probably have 40 people from all over the country, most of which have probably never been to Indiana Grand before, at the track. We have tempered expectations. There’s no pressure on us. We expect our horse to run his race. Where that puts us, we have to wait and see. It’s pretty much up to the racing gods, the trip and the horse.”
So what case does Kristufek the dispassionate handicapper make for his horse?
“I follow Churchill every day, so I not only follow my horses but every race every day,” he said. “What I can say about this horse from a positive perspective on the handicapping side, if you look at the past performances, once he took the blinkers off and dropped (in class), obviously he won for fun. Then he goes into starters $50,000 against multiple winners, older horses. If you watch the replay, we still think he won. There’s a big difference running against older horses and strictly 3-year-olds.
"Would I ever consider picking us against that field if I were just an innocent bystander? No. But if I’m playing trifectas or superfectas, I’d certainly think about using him.
“… Strange things happen in horse racing. Mr. Money has post position 11. He’s probably going to have to get early position, he could get hung wide, might not like the track. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. He’s obviously the horse to beat. There are some other name horses in there, Alwaysmining and Long Range Toddy. We respect those horses, but have we seen the best of them already? We know don’t have the credentials they have. But we know we’re headed in the right direction. What our ceiling is, we don’t know… We’re a little crazy for doing this, but we’re also realistic… The ownership group has only been in existence for two years. But if you’re ever going to take a shot, it seems like the timing is right.”
Silver Dust proves golden for Gilligan
In his sixth year as a jockey, Jack Gilligan won his first graded stakes when the persnickety gelding Silver Dust captured the Fair Grounds’ Grade 3 Mineshaft this past winter. In two starts since, Tom Durant’s Bret Calhoun-trained Silver Dust was a close second in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap and fourth in an extremely tough running of the Grade 2 Alysheba won by highly ranked McKinzie, with Tom’s D’Etat and Grade 1 winner Seeking the Soul second and third.
Now Silver Dust could be the horse to beat in Saturday’s $100,000 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial on the Indiana Derby card.
“We ran in the Alysheba on Oaks Day and he ran great, fourth that day behind McKinzie and beaten a length by Seeking the Soul,” Gilligan said. “He was going to run back in the Stephen Foster (won by Seeking the Soul), but he wasn’t 100 percent for that race. Bret gave him a little time between races, which was definitely a good move because now he’s doing really well. I feel we’ve got him where we need him. His last work Saturday was perfect, and we’re hoping for the best Saturday.”
Gilligan called the opportunity to ride Silver Dust “huge.”
“He’s a horse that can put you on the map,” he said. “He has a special place with me, for sure. He’s been my first kind of real big horse. I thank Tom Durant and Bret Calhoun for letting me ride him.”
Silver Dust has been an ongoing project for Calhoun, including the decision to geld the son of world-class stallion Tapit.
“He is difficult,” Gilligan said. “He’s starting to sweeten up more recently. He’s starting to re-enjoy his job. He made a ton of progress over the winter at the Fair Grounds. He used to be quite temperamental and you really had to persuade him to do his job. But he’s a little more willing to do it now and doing everything a little better. He used to be real bad in the gate and it seems like he’s gotten over that.”
Calhoun acknowledged that Silver Dust has been a very difficult horse to train.
“He put it together this year, had a really nice Fair Grounds meet,” the trainer said. “He came up here and ran a nice race. We even thought about running him in the Stephen Foster, knowing it was a tough race, but it was out of his own stall. It came up pretty tough, and I don’t think he was peaking out at the time. So we backed off and pointed toward this race and he seems to be coming into it very well.”
Calhoun said the difference seems to be maturing mentally.
“He was castrated over a year ago, and it took a while for that to take its effect with him,” he said. “Just repetition and mental maturity. He’s a talented horse, but he is difficult. A $500,000 Tapit, you have to think about it for a little bit (before gelding). But Tom Durant understands the game and was very good about it. He said, ‘You know, if that’s the only way we’re going to get there, that’s what we’ve got to do.’ He said, ‘I’m in the racing business, not the breeding business.’ So we castrated him and luckily it’s turned out well for us.”
Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing continues through Wednesday, Nov. 6. Racing is conducted Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 2:15 p.m. and Saturday at 6:15 p.m. More information about the season is available at www.indianagrand.com.
Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, which is owned and operated by a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ: CZR), holds multiple awards for customer service, entertainment, gaming, dining, and diversity. Located in Shelbyville, Ind., Indiana Grand features 2,200 of the latest slots and electronic table games in addition to a one-mile dirt racecourse and a seven-eighths mile turf course offering live Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing each year. Simulcast wagering is also offered year-round at Winner’s Circle Brewpub & OTB located on the casino floor as well as a Winner’s Circle OTB located in Clarksville, Ind. For more information, please visit www.IndianaGrand.com. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing at racetracks and 21 or older to gamble at casinos. Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-9-WITH-IT (1-800-994-8448) ©2019 Caesars License Company, LLC.
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Photos by Coady Photography
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