Gus Grissom, Richmond turn out to be family affairs

When Manny Esquivel was a teenager growing up in Cicero, Ill., after his family emigrated from Estepec, Mexico, it was his uncle Cipriano Contreras who took him under his wing at the track. Esquivel’s father found work as a groom at Hawthorne Racecourse, where Contreras was the assistant to the successful trainer Mike Reavis. Contreras was a tough master, but he helped Esquivel become a jockey.

“He’s been a really big part of my career," Esquivel said late Tuesday afternoon from the winner’s circle at Indiana Grand. "He taught me everything I know.”

It was a family reunion - a lucrative one, too - at Indiana Grand on Tuesday. Contreras, now training on his own, brought in Esquivel from Parx to ride his horses in a pair of six-figure stakes restricted to Indiana-bred and -sired horses. Both won.

Expect Indy led nearly all the way capturing the $105,100 Richmond Stakes, and Operation Steve came back a race later to win the $106,000 Gus Grissom Stakes.

The 1 1/16-mile Richmond was uneventful. Expect Indy broke sharply from the rail, raced alongside Bar Rag through a quarter-mile in 23.84 and a half in 47.14, put her pace rival away into the far turn, opened a clear lead, and coasted home 3 ¾ lengths in front of runner-up Hay Little Bit. Express Run, the 4-5 favorite, finished three-quarters of a length farther back in third.

Expect Indy, a 5-year-old mare by Mr. Mabee out of Jet n’Expectations, by Valid Expectations, ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.93 and paid $6.60. Expect Indy, who races for the Gumpster Stable, won for the eighth time in 28 starts.

Operation Stevie is a one-run closer who needs a fair pace for his best chance – and boy did he get one in the 1 1/16-mile Gus Grissom. The leaders tore through a quarter-mile in 22.96 and a half in 45.88, at which point Operation Stevie already had begun moving up from the back of the field. But Esquivel was forced to make an inside run with him, and for 50 yards or so had to sit helplessly as the tiring speed blocked his path.

“I got into trouble at the three-eighths – they backed up in my face,” he said.

But Operation Stevie was the 3-5 favorite here for a reason. Esquivel extricated his mount from trouble before the quarter pole, steered outside, and Operation Stevie cut and ran for the wire, getting home by a neck. He was timed in 1:44.85 for the 1 1/16 miles and paid a pittance, $3.20. Uphold finished second, Here Comes Doc third.

Contreras owns Operation Stevie along with a veteran client from Chicago, Earl Trostrud. Operation Stevie, a 6-year-old gelding by Lantana Mob out of Muktaddims Revenge, by Mutakkdim, has been a gold mine since being claimed for just $10,000 in May 2016. Operation Stevie has earned more than $230,000 this year alone to go with about $90,000 in 2017, and on Tuesday, Contreras invited his nephew out from Pennsylvania to keep some of it in the family.