Greenhills shooting for another stakes double at Indiana Grand

The Greenhill Racing Stables of Sherri and Jeff Greenhill won two six-figure stakes races June 19 at Indiana Grand with horses they bred and own and that Jeff trains. That was a rare feat, and Wednesday the Greenhills will try to pull it off again when Moves Like Magic runs in the $100,000 Ellens Lucky Star for Indiana-bred 3-year-old fillies and Toss of Fate starts in the $100,000 Snack for Indiana-bred 3-year-olds.

Both races, which go as the eighth and ninth in a 10-race program, first post 2:15 Eastern, are carded for one mile on turf.

While both Greenhill horses are listed as 5-2 morning-line favorites, Toss of Fate is the more reliable proposition. Toss of Fate never has been worse than second in his six starts and his stakes win last month came in a two-turn dirt race, but he might be better on grass. He’s won both his turf starts – one short, one long – and is “from a family of multiple stakes winners on turf,” Jeff Greenhill said.

Toss of Fate, Malcolm Franklin named to ride, is by Shanghai Bobby and out of the Repriced mare Pay the Toll, who has laid golden egg after golden egg for the Greenhills since becoming a broodmare following a nondescript racing career.

“Knock on wood, everything has gone good with the horse since his last race,” said Greenhill.

The Snack, however, is a deeper, tougher race than the Ellen’s Lucky Star, and Toss of Fate will have to be on his game to win again. Twobirdsonestone never has tried turf but has a grass-leaning female family and a deep-closing style that could play well in a race packed with speed, at least as it appears on paper.

Moves Like Magic faces a softer bunch but has more to overcome, starting with the outside post in a 10-horse field.

“She’s never tried turf before and there’s plenty of questions there,” said Greenhill.

Moves Like Magic is by Macleans Music out of Schefflera, by Mutakkdim, a large “maybe” when it comes to the surface switch. The filly already has put together a strong season by winning three of four starts.

“I ran her back in 10 days, thought she’d bounce to the moon, and she won. With her pedigree, I never thought she’d get a mile and a sixteenth, and she did that,” Greenhill said. “They keep throwing her curve balls and she keeps hitting them.”

Trainer Brad Cox, whose barn is batting .360 at the meet, starts Wondrshegotthundr, a once-started Graydar filly whose debut last month produced a 13 1/2-length victory in an Indiana-bred dirt-route maiden race. Krunch has only sprinted on dirt but has started her career with three wins, while Discreet Beauty, second to Moves Like Magic in the Hoosier Breeder Sophomore fillies’ division June 11, will attract support.

The pick to win – and hopefully at a price – is Pretty Assets. Listed at 8-1 on the morning line, Pretty Assets is a deep-closing type who finished second by a head the first time she tried turf and beat older Indiana-breds in a nonwinners-of-three allowance race in her second grass start. That race came June 28. If Pretty Assets can run back to it, and if all the early pace shows Wednesday, she can win her fourth start in a row.