Maximum Offer gives McPeek record fourth victory in Grade 3 Indiana Oaks at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Trainer Kenny McPeek won the Indiana Oaks for a record fourth time Saturday as Maximum Offer led all the way for a 2 1/2-length victory over Betty’s Pearl in the $200,000, Grade 3 stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

McPeek’s other winners were Defining Purpose in 2023, Runaway Wife in 2022 and Pure Fun in 2013.

Speaking by phone from Lexington, where he was looking at horses in advance of the Fasig-Tipton sale, McPeek was surprised to learn that no other trainer has won the Indiana Oaks more than once.

“That’s incredible,” he said. “We’re really proud of it. These are the kinds of races you’ve got to be competitive in to get to the next level. Any time you do it with a filly, it’s valuable.”

Getting a graded-stakes placing was the mission going into the 1 1/16-mile Indiana Oaks with Maximum Offer. The daughter of Maxfield had run twice before in graded stakes, both times setting the pace before fading to fifth in New Orleans’ Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and Saratoga’s Grade 1 Acorn.

In between she won an allowance race on the Kentucky Oaks undercard, with Betty’s Pearl also second that day. McPeek had said on Friday that if she replicated that effort, he thought Maximum Offer had a big chance to win.

With no one else taking charge, jockey Luis Saez put Maximum Offer on the lead, where she stayed through tepid fractions of 24.74 for the first quarter-mile, 48.95 for the half, 1:12.44 for six furlongs and 1:36.17 for the mile. Betty’s Pearl, with jockey Mario Gutierrez, rallied through the stretch but was unsuccessful in trying to close the gap as Maximum Offer finished in 1:42.65. The track record is 1:41.15 by Tip Top Thomas in last year’s Indiana Derby.

“That filly has a lot of speed,” said Saez, riding Maximum Offer for the first time. “She controlled the pace. It was an easy lead, so it was pretty fun today. They told me to try to have a target, but she has so much speed. She broke well and took the lead easy. I felt like I had the horse to fight anyone off. She came into the stretch a pretty fresh filly.”

McPeek said that he was looking at the field beforehand with co-owner Chris Baccardi while they were at the yearling sale. 

“He said, ‘Do you think we need to take her back?’” McPeek reflected. “I said, ‘I don’t think we need to tell Luis Saez anything. Let him do what he does.’ And he did.”

The trainer was concerned, however, when Maximum Offer acted up in the post parade.

“She was quirky. I’m not sure what that was about, maybe unfamiliar territory or something,” he said. “I think the key is if she gets her way, she will gut it out the last quarter. She fights. And extremely hard-trier. If she doesn’t get her way earlier in the race, then she will falter. But that’s the difference in a Grade 1 and a Grade 3.”

But Maximum Offer, who paid $13 to win as the fourth choice in the field of five 3-year-old fillies, could have earned another shot at Grade 1 company.

“We need to keep her against straight 3-year-old fillies as long as we can,” McPeek said. “I’d love to think she could make the (Grade 1) Cotillion (at Parx).”

Betty’s Pearl held off Nahla by a neck. It was another 1 3/4 lengths to 6-5 favorite Prom Queen, followed by Star Actress, with Mizumi scratched.

“She ran amazing,” Gutierrez said of the Brian Lynch-trained Betty’s Pearl. “They got away with slow fractions. That’s not the style of my horse. I kept pushing her to try and go to make the pace and save horse at the same time. Like I said, the winner got away with slow fractions first quarter, second quarter and even the third quarter. That’s why he was able to maintain the lead at the end. But I was so proud of her. She’s a nice little filly. Hopefully, she’ll keep getting better and better.”

Trainer Brad Cox (who in the next race would win the $300,000 Indiana Derby with Leading Change) said he was happy with Nahla, who was ridden by the popular local jockey Fernando De La Cruz.

“She’s got a nice pedigree,” Cox said. “Big step up off a maiden race straight into a graded stakes. She performed well.”

Cox also trains Prom Queen, winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 28, then fifth in the Kentucky Oaks and fourth in the Acorn.

“Flat as a board, not much I can say,” he said of the beaten favorite.

Maximum Offer now is 3-0-1 in eight starts, with the $120,000 payday bringing her earnings to $311,097 for owners Baccari Racing, Alfred Riccio and Robert Cotrone.

McPeek gave credit to his Churchill Downs-based assistant trainer, Greg Geier, who has overseen Maximum Offer’s training. “I think he’s been up there with all four of my winners,” the trainer said.

Said Geier: “Good spot for her. Lot better than her last spot. Took a chance and it worked out. I was pleasantly surprised with the fractions, that he was able to slow it down. The last couple of times she got caught up in a fast pace and just gave it up. Today she slowed it down, and everything was good. ‘Louie’ had plenty of horse, just sat and waited. Sit, sit, asked her and she took off.”

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