Leading Change enters Indiana Derby off just one race — but that could be enough

Wathnan Racing’s 3-year-old colt Leading Change has run only one time. But that was enough to lure record-setting jockey Irad Ortiz to Horseshoe Indianapolis for Saturday’s $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby rather than riding at Saratoga.

Ortiz was aboard when Leading Change won June 7 by 6 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs in a seven-furlong maiden race.

“Obviously, this is a big ask from winning your maiden first time out to a graded stakes around two turns,” trainer Brad Cox said recently at Churchill Downs. “But I just like the idea of getting him around two turns. I think it’s what he’s meant to do. I think it’s what he wants to do. Just based off some of the other races I was looking at, I felt like this made sense for him.

“He’s a talented horse. We’ve liked him all along. We’re throwing a lot at him in a short period of time, but he’s training well. It’s not what we normally do. You can do that with 2-year-olds and stuff. This is a big ask. But I think he’ll run a great race.”

But a great effort can be relative, especially when facing far more experienced horses. Cox is keeping expectations in check for the 1 1/16-mile Indiana Derby.

“We’re hoping he can be competitive,” he said. “We’re just looking for a positive experience for him. It looks like there’s some speed to run at in there. Irad knows him. He worked him in the mornings and rode him first time out and was very impressed. Usually that’s an educational experience against seasoned horses.”

Leading Change (photo) drew post 8 and was installed as the 5-1 fourth choice in a field of nine 3-year-olds. However, trainer Bob Baffert confirmed via text that 5-2 favorite Desert Gate will run instead in Saturday’s Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.

Cox said he’s good with what will become the outside post for Leading Change.

“It’s fine,” he said. “I think there’s some speed in there. I need to look at the race a little closer. He broke well first time. Like I said, he’s meant to be a two-turn horse. He acts like it, trains like it. I think he was that good that he was able to get the job done first time out at seven-eighths.”

Cox has won Indiana’s marquee race three times in the past six years, starting with Shared Sense in 2020, followed by Verifying in 2023 and Dragoon Guard in 2024. Also in 2020, Cox won the Indiana Oaks with Shedaresthedevil, who is out of the same WinStar Farm broodmare (Starship Warpspeed) as Leading Change, who cost $800,000 as a Keeneland September Yearling purchase.

Shedaresthedevil went on to win the Covid-delayed Kentucky Oaks and two other Grade 1 races while earning $2.77 million. While she’s a daughter of Daredevil, now at stud in Turkey, Leading Change’s sire is Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year and 2024 Hall of Fame inductee who quickly emerged as one of the world’s leading stallions.

“We’ve had some success in the Indiana Derby,” Cox said. “He’s a very good colt and stacks up with all the past winners we’ve had. Look, I think he’s got a big future. That doesn’t mean he’s going to win the Indiana Derby. Once again, we’re just looking for a good effort and something to build off of.

“Put it this way: Before he ran, he's one that had me dreaming a little bit about what he could do. Sometimes that works out; sometimes it doesn't. But I think the talent’s there, the mindset, the pedigree.”

Leading Change was all set to run last fall, including being in the entries at Keeneland, Cox said.

“The day of the race, he had an issue and just took some time to get over it,” he said. “Just very unfortunate. He came back to us this winter in Florida, and it did take him a little while to get into shape. But I think he showed how good he was when he broke his maiden.”

Cox goes for second Indiana Oaks

While Cox has won the Indiana Derby three times since 2020, Shedaresthedevil is his only Indiana Oaks winner. He hopes that changes Saturday, when he runs both Prom Queen and Nahla in the $200,000, Grade 3 Indiana Oaks.

The winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, Prom Queen is the 9-5 favorite among the six 3-year-old fillies entered in the 1 1/16-mile Indiana Oaks. (The 5-2 second choice Mizumi will scratch to run in Friday night’s Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows, Baffert said.)

Prom Queen was a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Acorn at a mile at Saratoga after finishing a competitive fifth of 13 fillies in the Kentucky Oaks. She will have a new owner for the Indiana Oaks, with breeders Gary and Mary West selling her privately.

“It was a late decision to put Prom Queen in,” Cox said of the Indiana Oaks. “She actually was purchased in the last few days by Delta Squad Racing. I told them that this was what I was wanting to do with her, whether they purchased her or not. They bought her a couple of days ago, and here we are.

“They own (Grade 2 winner and $546,880-earner) Margie’s Intention. Got into racing about a year ago, so they’ve been a success. Prom Queen is a Grade 2 winner, nice pedigree, good physical. We’re hoping this is going to add to her resume and hopefully we can give her another swing at the Grade 1 level at some point.”

At 6-1 odds in the morning line, Shadwell Stable’s Nahla is one of the higher prices in the Indiana Oaks, but she’s the only horse in the field with a win at Horseshoe Indy. Nahla won an off-the-turf maiden race on May 25 over the local track under Fernando De La Cruz. She started her career in February with a second at Tampa Bay Downs and another second at Gulfstream Park. 

“Nahla has really picked it up this spring and summer,” Cox said. “I like how she’s doing. De La Cruz rides her back. She’s obviously familiar with Indiana. She’s been training there all along and trailing really well…. We’re trying to win the race with her, but a placing would be big. She’s a half-sister to (14-time winner and $5.89 million-earner) Skippylongstocking, so she has a really nice pedigree. Hopefully she can step up and get a piece of it.”

Calhoun hoping Our Moneyman gets pocket trip from post 4

The defection of Grade 1-placed Desert Gate, the front-running Texas Derby winner before finishing fourth in the June 20 Ohio Derby, takes some early speed out of the $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby field. But trainer Bret Calhoun is banking on there remaining enough to set up Our Moneyman’s closing kick in the 1 1/16-mile stakes, for which he's the 4-1 second choice in the morning line.

Calhoun is shooting for a third victory in the Indiana Derby, with Allied Racing Stable’s Grade 3 Matt Winn runner-up Our Moneyman (photo) breaking from post 4 with jockey Axel Concepcion. Calhoun won the 2019 Indiana Derby with Mr. Money, sire of the Louisiana-bred Our Moneyman, and again in 2021 with Mr. Wireless.

“I think (post 4) is great,” Calhoun said Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs. “I think it’s a good spot. You don’t have to worry about giving up too much ground from there, and hoping he won’t get bottled up behind somebody in the first turn. But you’ve got to be able to save some ground and have the option to get out — you hope. I haven’t really broken down the race to see how much speed there is and where it is at. But hopefully we get a pocket trip and get a chance to get a clear run.

“I think Leading Change will be forwardly placed, coming out of a seven-eighths race and showing some speed there. Creole Chrome (post 6) has some tactical speed. I don’t think they try to put him there, but I think he just naturally has good route speed.”

Three Diamonds Farm’s Creole Chrome is trained by Calhoun’s stepson, Joe Sharp. The chestnut colt comes into the Indiana Derby off an 18-length romp at 1-20 odds in Evangeline Downs’ Louisiana Legends Cheval Stakes for Louisiana-breds.

Out of the Woods, the 9-2 third choice, is another horse that figures to be up close. After being in mid-pack in five maiden races in California, the Constitution gelding’s fortunes changed once trainer Phil D’Amato sent him East. Out of the Woods led all the way in an Oaklawn Park maiden race in his sixth start and then a Churchill Downs allowance race. He also was part of the pace in the $300,000 Delaware Derby on June 13 before finishing second.

Others entered in the Indiana Derby are the Rodolphe Brisset-trained duo of Lighter and Bricklin, locally based Mister T and Zihnal. Justin Bailey’s Mister T is cross-entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Handicap for Indiana-bred 3-year-olds. Bricklin was also entered in the Iowa Derby.

Indiana Oaks: Betty’s Pearl becoming a gem for Lynch

Betty’s Pearl (main photo) will face some familiar company in Saturday’s $200,000, Grade 3 Indiana Oaks in favored Prom Queen and Maximum Offer, both of whom beat the Brian Lynch-trained filly this spring. But Lynch says Betty’s Pearl is a much better horse now.

Betty’s Pearl finished fourth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks won by Prom Queen before coming in second behind Maximum Offer in an allowance race on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. Lynch had added blinkers to owner William K. Werner’s gray filly for that May 1 race, then saw even more improvement when Betty’s Pearl won a May 30 allowance race by 6 1/4 lengths.

“She had a very nice win here through the later part of the Churchill meet,” Lynch said. “She seems to be getting the mojo on, and we’re really happy with her. She had a lovely five-eighths work here on the weekend, so we think she’s going into the race in good order. I think the blinkers have been a big help to her.”

The 1 1/16-mile Indiana Oaks marks Betty’s Pearl’s return to stakes company, the Gulfstream Park Oaks being her only other stakes appearance.

“She’s really developed since that Gulfstream Park out,” Lynch said. “The Indiana Oaks is something we’ve been pointing for. We’ve got another couple of fillies in that category, so we tried to keep them separated and she suited that Indiana race… I’d like to say that we could reverse the outcome here (against Prom Queen and Maximum Offer) because I feel she’s a lot better filly now than she was when she met them the last time.

“It looks like a short field, very tactical race. She’s sort of gotten to where she can settle off the pace a bit now, see what happens in front of her. She seems to have developed a nice late closing kick. That’s always a good addition to a resume when you’re going long…. It’s a very competitive field. She just gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling going into it.”

Mario Gutierrez, who relocated his family to Louisville last year from Southern California after their home was destroyed in a wildfire, will ride Betty’s Pearl for the sixth straight race, first getting on the $700,000 OBS April 2-year-old purchase in Florida over the winter. Lynch has been one of Gutierrez’s biggest supporters as the jockey works to get a toehold on the challenging Kentucky circuit.

“He’s a first-class jockey. He’s won two Derbys and a Preakness,” Lynch said, referencing Gutierrez’s victories on I’ll Have Another in the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, followed by Nyquist in the 2016 Kentucky Derby. “He knows how to steer ’em around there, and he gets along with this filly really well. He was very happy with her last work, so I know he’ll ride her with plenty of confidence. It’s a very strong jockey colony. But I think if you put Mario on the right horses, he can ride as good as any of them.”

Indiana Derby Day begins at noon for the 13-race card. Additional activities surround the event trackside, including a $3,000 Indiana Derby Megabet drawing, $2,500 Indiana Derby Day Legends contest, sponsored by Indiana HBPA, and a $1,000 Indiana Derby Hat Contest.

Fans will also be treated to a cigar rolling station, selfie station, and facepainting for the kids. Food trucks and various booths will also be available throughout the day leading up to the Indiana Derby set as Race 12 on the program.

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