Clicquot pops the cork, rolls in Indiana Oaks at Horseshoe Indianapolis

Clicquot proved the toast of Saturday’s Indiana Oaks, rolling to a four-length victory over locally-based Top at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Clicquot, named for the champagne Veuve Clicquot, was made the favorite at slightly more than even-money in the field of six 3-year-old fillies off of an impressive allowance victory May 31 at Churchill Downs. Though she’d never been in a stakes race before, she ran like she had.

“From the get-go she’s always been very nice,” said Kentucky-based trainer Brendan Walsh. “Looks like she’s still improving, second time going two turns. So, she looks like she’s really, really top drawer … We’ve been lucky enough to we’ve had some nice fillies the last couple of years. I think this filly is up there with the best of them, so who knows where she’ll go from here?”

Jockey Edgar Morales settled Clicquot behind front-running Heavenly Sunset and Top, angling out on the far turn and — according to the Equibase chart-caller with a sense of humor — “popped the cork and drew off under a drive.” She finished 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.42, returning $4.20, $3.20, and $2.20 as she ran her record to 3-for-4.

Clicquot finished sixth in her career debut March 1 at Gulfstream Park, then romped by six lengths at Keeneland. Six weeks later, she ran in the 1 1/16-mile allowance at Churchill Downs, beating the Brad Cox-trained Heavenly Sunset, the Indiana Oaks’ second choice at 2-1.

Morales had never ridden Clicquot in a race but was in the saddle for her last work.

“She worked amazing,” he said. “We knew she’d be tough to beat. If they’d let us take the lead easy, we’d have gone with it. But we knew the 5 (Heavenly Sunset) and the 4 (Top) had some speed, so we could plan sitting off, and it worked pretty good. We sat right in behind, stalking. And when I kicked her out, she was all business.”

Heavenly Sunset set fractions of 23.18 seconds for the quarter-mile and 46.15 for the half before fading. Top and jockey Fernando De La Cruz took over the lead midway through the far turn, reaching six furlongs in 1:10.36 but were unable to hold off Clicquot while maintaining second. Top finished two lengths in front of Sturgeon Moon, followed by Deloraine, Goldeneye Magic and Heavenly Sunset.

Top came into the race with two wins out of three starts sprinting at Horseshoe Indianapolis following a 0-for-3 run over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface.

“I’m so excited. She ran huge,” said trainer Michelle Elliott. “Especially that I haven’t run her long one time since we hit the dirt. I’m so very proud of her. I thought she could go the distance, and I think we went a pretty good time, too. I was pretty stoked.”

“I put her in a really good position,” De La Cruz said. “I just got beat by a better horse.”

Clicquot, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Quality Road, picked up $118,800 and now has made $258,153 for Donato Lanni’s X-Men Racing IV LLC and Madaket Stables.

“You’d have to start looking at the bigger prizes with her now,” Walsh said. “She’s got some nice seasoning under her. I thought it was important that we came here today and got a nice in-between-race before she goes and tries to take on some of the better fillies in the country … I don’t think we’re anywhere near the bottom of her yet. We’ll see. She was a late starter this year, so she’s probably going to be an even nicer 4-year-old.”

Walsh said the gun-metal gray Clicquot was in a good spot throughout.

“They were going quick enough,” he said. “I thought she was in a perfect spot. Brad’s filly started to back up a bit, and I thought she was our main danger. Probably her and Eoin Harty’s filly (Deloraine), too. But she looked like she was always traveling very comfortably, and it was just a question of when he was going to get a split and push the button.

“She responded well. She came back like she was out walking. Bags of class, she’s got. She’s so classy. That’s a quality the good ones have, and you can’t teach that.”

The victory was the fourth for Morales in a graded stakes, his first outside Kentucky. Perhaps no one was happier for Morales than Walsh.

“He comes in and works a lot of horses for me,” the trainer said. “He rides a lot for me, too. He’s a very capable rider. I think sometimes an underrated rider, but very, very good rider. He’s a good judge. He gives a good opinion of a horse and he rides fantastic. Hopefully, it’s the first big one of many for us.”

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