Double Tuff, Expect Indy display disparate qualities in stakes wins
Double Tuff won the $103,700 William Henry Harrison Stakes on Wednesday at Indiana Grand with a display of athletic superiority. A race later, Expect Indy captured the $106,650 Shelby County Stakes through a mixture of gumption and grit.
Expect Indy ($6.60), several lengths from the lead at the top of the stretch, wended her way up the rail, scraping through a narrow gap at the eighth pole and switching out late to tag 1-2 favorite Unbridled Class in the last few strides and post a half-length victory.
Double Tuff ($3.80) stalked the leaders, pounced, and dominated the Harrison, drawing away to a 4 ¾-length victory in a stakes-record 1:09.12 for six furlongs on a fast dirt track.
Expect Indy clocked 1:10.88 in the sister race to the Harrison, both stakes restricted to Indiana-bred and -sired entrants.
Expect Indy’s game score came for the Gumpster Stable and trainer Cipriano Contreras. Contreras had sent out Here Comes Stevie as a well-bet second choice in the Harrison, but the gelding could only finish a distant third trying to win the race for the second year in a row.
Manny Esquivel, who learned the jockey’s craft under Contreras, his uncle, at Hawthorne in Chicago, came in from his East Coast base to ride both Contreras stakes starters, and he never wavered when Expect Indy briefly was blocked in midstretch. Expect Indy is a 6-year-old mare by Mr. Mabee out of Jet n’ Expectations, by Valid Expectations. She was second in this race a year ago.
Six-year-old Double Tuff, by Skylord out of Icey Energy, by Unbridled Energy, might have run a peak race Wednesday in his 21st career start. Claimed for $16,000 two starts ago by trainer Randy Matthews, who owns the gelding with partners now, Double Tuff was a sharp starter-allowance race winner in his most recent start and had no competition Wednesday after finishing second in the last two renewals of the Harrison.
“I’ve been following this horse for a long time,” said Matthews, who gave a leg up to jockey Marcelino Pedroza, sat back, and enjoyed the show.