Favorites Hot Little Thing, Nobody Listens narrowly win stakes

Favorites prevailed, if only just, in a pair of Indiana-bred dirt sprint stakes on Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Hot Little Thing, 2-1 favorite in the Checkered Flag Handicap for older fillies and mares, surged in the final 50 yards to beat a game Carimba by a neck. A race later, 6-5 favorite Nobody Listens was saved by the wire, just holding off Latigo in the Brickyard Handicap.

Three-year-old Hot Little Thing - who is, indeed, diminutive - faced older stakes horses for the first time, got little to no weight from them despite the age gap, and still managed to run her career mark to 8-5-1-1. Under Alex Achard, Hot Little Thing appeared to be getting a perfect trip stalking from third as Carimba on the rail and Poetic Verse to her outside battled through splits of 21.76 and 44.71 - until the speed horses failed to come back to her.

Carimba, stuck down on the rail the entire trip, came back on Poetic Verse in midstretch after Poetic Verse had taken a short lead on the far turn, and at the sixteenth pole, Hot Little Thing looked like she’d come up short. Instead, one final push and she was up by a narrow margin, stopping the timer in a robust 1:09.61.

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Hot Little Thing ($6.20) is by Army Mule out of Bouffant, by Uncle Mo. The filly was purchased this past April at Keeneland’s horses of racing age sale for $125,000. She’s owned and trained by Brian Lynch.

In the Brickyard, Nobody Listens, under Joseph Ramos, set a blistering pace, 21.72 and 43.97, and held on to win by a head after capturing this race a year ago by six lengths. Hounded on the lead by New Year’s Fever, who would fade to sixth, Nobody Listens strode clear to lead by 2 1/2 lengths at the stretch call, but a determined Latigo made a sustained run that fell just short.

Fortin Hill also ran well, rallying on the rail to finish third, a half-length behind Latigo. The winner was timed in 1:09.65 and paid $4.60.

Five-year-old Nobody Listens, a gelding by Conveyance out of the Chapel Royal mare Bouffant, is a veritable win machine and now sports a flashy career mark of 23-11-7-1. Owned by Matt Kwiatkowski, Jason Kaylor and Roger Browning, Nobody Listens has been trained since last November by Tim Eggleston.

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