Cherry Wine, Cupid head Indiana Derby probables

Cherry Wine, the Preakness Stakes runner-up, and Cupid, who won the Rebel Stakes so impressively in March, head the list of prospective starters for the Grade 2, $500,000 Indiana Derby, the most important race of the season at Indiana Grand.

The Derby tops a six-stakes card next Saturday, with entries taken Wednesday. Also on that program is the Grade 2, $200,000 Indiana Oaks.

Indiana Grand racing officials are forecasting a full if not oversubscribed field for the 1 1/16-mile Indiana Derby, which has a maximum of 12 starters. Cherry Wine was excluded from the Kentucky Derby, a race in which his connections desired to start, but rallied for second behind Exaggerator in the Preakness before finishing seventh in the Belmont Stakes.

Cupid set a fast pace and was a sharp winner of the Rebel Stakes but faded to 10th in the Arkansas Derby. He subsequently underwent surgery to correct a breathing problem and then finished a distant fifth as the odds-on favorite in the Easy Goer Stakes on the Belmont Stakes card.

Others mentioned as probable runners are Cocked and Loaded, Discreet Lover, Race Me Home, Seeking Blame, Star Hill, The Player, Whateverybodywants, and Who’s Out.

The Player could prove an appealing alternative to the favorites. Lightly raced with just four races in his career, The Player has won back-to-back one-turn-mile races at Churchill Downs in his second and third starts this season.

“He was a little tired after his second win, which is one reason we picked this race out since it’s five weeks between starts,” said trainer Buff Bradley. “We also felt that since we’re going to be stretching him out, we didn’t want to do the mile and an eighth yet, and the mile and a sixteenth looked attractive to us.”

The Player, by Street Hero, had knee surgery after making one start at 2 but was given plenty of time to recover and might well remain on an upward trajectory going into his stakes debut.