If the distance is a bit farther than trainer Jonathan Thomas’ preference for Regal Realm’s 5-year-old debut, the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff at 1 1/16 miles is perfect timing to start Augustin Stable’s mare on the road to her ultimate objective: the $1.5 million, Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, a mile race she won last year.
“The filly is training well,” the Keeneland-based Thomas said. “We’re happy to get her back, with the ultimate target of getting her to Kentucky Downs the best way possible. It’s the first step of her year.”
If she seems like the she’s got a class edge in the field of 11 fillies and mares, Thomas said, “It seems like it, but you never know. Listen, we’re coming off a big, big layoff. So what we’re looking for is exiting in good order and in good health and taking a step forward from a fitness perspective.”
In her last start Nov. 19 at Aqueduct in New York, Regal Realm (photo, center) finished fifth - but beaten only 1 3/4 lengths — in the 1 1/16-mile Forever Together, a stakes named for the champion turf horse campaigned by Augustin’s George Strawbridge.
“The thing we’ve really learned from her, especially when you start stepping into stakes company, anything over a mile seems to be a little bit out of her reach,” Thomas said. “I realize this is at a mile and a sixteenth. But it was the best option for us. She’s best seven-eighths to a mile.”
Thomas said the seven-month layoff was by design.
“She’d had a long year, kind of like two seasons going into one because she got a later start at 2,” he said. “We wanted to give her a good winter break and have her come back in good order. She seems to have done all those things.”
Thomas said if everything goes well at Horseshoe Indianapolis, Regal Realm would make her next start in Ellis Park’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Mile, an Aug. 4 race whose winner gets a fees-paid spot in the Aug. 29 Kentucky Downs stakes.
“Especially with these stakes horses, it’s so nice to have a schedule you can hop on to get to some of these bigger targets,” Thomas said. “So, the spacing is perfect.”
Maker’s Me and Mr. C goes for Schuster repeat
Trainer Mike Maker is always a presence on Indiana’s biggest card, and his group this year includes 2023 Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial winner Me and Mr. C attempting a repeat.
Me and Mr. C (photo below, left) followed last year’s score at almost 10-1 odds with a victory at 16-1 in Ellis Park’s Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup at 1 1/4 miles. The gelding is 0 for 6 since, but with two thirds in stakes in Florida and a second in a $100,000 handicap.
“He’s an old veteran,” Maker said of the 7-year-old. “Looks like he’s going to need to step up his game to defend his crown. He ran great last year, and that’s why I pointed him for that race.”
Maker also has Big Dreaming, a $30,000 claim three races ago in January, in the Schuster at 1 1/16 miles on turf. His new owners have run Big Dreaming twice, most recently a second-level grass allowance March 16 in New Orleans.
A $35,000 claim last September, Stir Crazy comes into the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff Handicap on turf off second- and third-level allowance victories at Churchill Downs, one a dominating performance when the race came off the grass.
“Two-race win streak and we’re hoping for some rain,” Maker said.
Off a state-bred maiden victory on grass, Indian Creed runs in the $100,000 Snack Handicap for registered Indiana-breds.
“It’s a very good group,” Maker said of his horses. “But having said that, these races came up a lot tougher this year.”
Maker said Maker’s Candy will be scratched from the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial.
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