Demolisher looks to stay perfect in To Much Coffee Handicap

Cipriano Contreras came up as an assistant in Chicago to Mike Reavis, mainly a claiming trainer. Contreras since going out on his own in 2016 has carved a successful niche summering at Horseshoe Indianapolis and wintering at Oaklawn Park while, like Reavis, mainly running a claiming operation.

Over the last five years, Contreras has 122 claiming-race winners. By contrast, Contreras has debuted only 36 horses in maiden special weight races during the same period. But with the 3-year-old Demolisher, Contreras has shown he can develop a horse as well as claim one.

Demolisher won his career debut in June and subsequently has notched three more victories. He comes into the $150,000 To Much Coffee Handicap on Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis 4 for 4 and the most likely winner of the 1 1/16-mile dirt race for Indiana-breds.

The To Much Coffee – one of six stakes races on this card – drew an overflow field and can accommodate a dozen runners, with Demolisher’s main rival, King Ice, marooned out in post 12. Demolisher has a much better post, 4, and carries 124 pounds, giving as much as six pounds to his lowest-weighted rival and getting two from the starting highweight, Highest Memories.

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While a 3-year-old in early October should carry no more weight than older rivals, Demolisher beat older Indiana-breds on Aug. 21 under 124 pounds in the Bucchero Handicap. That race marked the turf debut for Demolisher, a Kenneth Ayres homebred by Dominus. While Demolisher was 1 1/2 lengths best on grass, his Beyer Speed Figures, both sprinting and routing, say he’s a faster dirt horse.

King Ice, improbably listed at 12-1 on the track’s morning line, won the 2023 To Much Coffee as a 3-year-old by nearly seven lengths, albeit with an ideal race flow as a one-run closer rallying into a strong pace. George Leonard trained King Ice for most of his career before the colt was moved this summer to trainer Genaro Garcia, for whom King Ice, returning from a two-month layoff, finished a modest fifth on Aug. 6. He came much closer to his peak form three weeks later winning an open first-level allowance and should be closing late on Demolisher.

Cardinal

While the To Much Coffee looks like a two-horse race should everyone run to form, Corningstone stands out in the $150,000 Cardinal Handicap, a dirt route for older Indiana-bred fillies and mares.

Trained in Kentucky by Kenny McPeek, 4-year-old Corningstone has won 3 of 4 Indiana-bred dirt-route stakes starts and has held such good form this year that her connections didn’t bother to try statebred-restricted competition until this race. Corningstone finished a distant third in the $250,000 Lady Jacqueline on the Ohio Derby undercard, then returned from a layoff of nearly three months Sept. 14 with a stronger showing, finishing second behind Musical Mischief in the Grade 2 Locust Grove.

Bluelightspecial handed Corningstone her lone defeat in an Indiana-bred dirt route and won the 2023 Cardinal for Contreras but hasn’t approached peak performance since returning from a winter break with a smart Oaklawn Park allowance score.

Circle City

Large Pour is listed at 9-5 on the morning line for the $100,000 Circle City Stakes, but really, you couldn’t make him a strong enough favorite.

Large Pour won his debut July 29 by more than five lengths, nothing compared to the whipping he gave first-level Indiana-bred allowance foes about a month later. It’s hard to win a race as short as 5 1/2 furlongs by a particularly wide margin, but Large Pour, leading while in hand, scored by more than 17 lengths.

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A son of Vino Rosso trained by Tony Granitz, Large Pour breaks from the rail – as he did last out – in the six-furlong Circle City and ought to make short work of nine other Indiana-bred 2-year-olds. A 10th, Mondavilla, looms the wild card, a dominant debut winner of his Sept. 4 debut.

◗ The Hightail filly Elegant Justice figures a similarly short price in the $100,000 Back Home Again for Indiana-bred 2-year-old fillies. Her second in the Prairie Gold Lassie behind the talented Shezafunkydrummer is sandwiched between double-digit length victories in Indiana-bred dirt-sprint competition.

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