Hammond brings hot hand to Indiana Grand stakes

Hammond is a small city in Northern Indiana, and Hammond is in the midst of a big run at Indiana Grand.

That’s Kim Hammond, a trainer whose stable, somewhat out of the blue, has gotten red-hot in August and still is burning bright. From the delayed start of this Indiana Grand meet through the end of July, Hammond had a record of 41-4-5-9. From Aug. 1 through Oct. 5, her record is 50-16-6-4, those 16 wins the best among Indiana Grand trainers. Hammond’s return on investment during the latest period is $3.66, and in turf races since Aug. 1 she is 9-2-1 from 20 starts with a $7.68 ROI.

All of which brings us to Wednesday’s racing at Indiana Grand, where Hammond has runners in three of the four Indiana-bred stakes races. The sequence spans races 6 through 9, with dirt sprints and turf routes for both older horses and older fillies and mares.

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Hammond’s runners come in the two turf routes, the $75,000 Florence Henderson for females, where she sends out The Beauty’s Tale, and in the $75,000 A.J. Foyt, where she entered Rocky Rush, who prefers dirt to turf, and Mr. Gary D, who rates a strong chance. In the $75,000 Brickyard over six furlongs on dirt, the Hammond pair are Double Tuff, the horse to beat, and Flowerpecker.

Hammond and owners Jerry Carden and Willowbrook Stables claimed Double Tuff for $25,000 last November and didn’t start him until Sept. 2, when he won the William Henry Harrison, a race in this division, by two lengths. In 2018, Double Tuff was second in the Harrison and fourth in the Brickyard, and in 2019 he won the Harrison and finished sixth in the Brickyard. The way this barn has been rolling, the five-week break between starts seems more likely to propel Double Tuff to a higher performance level than cause regression, and the 7-year-old gelding by Skylord has turned in two lively looking works since his comeback victory.

Flowerpecker will be perhaps four times the price of Double Tuff but enters in the best form of his life and has a versatile lead-or-stalk running style. But the main threat to Double Tuff, if he runs like he can, is Flatter Hymn. Based in West Virginia with trainer Jeff Runco, Flatter Hymn has started his career with three wins, the first two in open company at Charles Town before he was shipped west to take advantage of his Indiana-bred status. He overcame a wide trip Aug. 26 to win the $100,000 Governor’s Stakes for 3-year-olds over a route of ground, and the cutback to a sprint trip might help Flatter Hymn more than hurting him.

Mr. Gary D can better his third-place finish in the 2019 Foyt, the two-turn turf race. Following two very poor dirt performances earlier this meet, Mr. Gary D showed surprising speed to win a $10,000 starter-allowance turf route on Aug. 24, his most recent start, earning a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure, a number plenty high to land first place in the Foyt. Strong Tide, the 2-1 morning-line favorite, bossed 3-year-old Indiana-bred turf rivals earlier in the meet but never has come close to Mr. Gary D’s best figure.

The Beauty’s Tale, Hammond’s Florence Henderson runner, also won her last start but probably will find Wondrshegotthundr difficult to beat. Trainer Brad Cox’s late-summer, early-fall Indiana Grand record is not far behind Hammond, and in Wondrshegotthundr he sends out the 2019 Henderson winner. The 4-year-old filly has raced only twice in 2020, running decently but losing a pair of open allowance starts, and she probably is sitting on a peak performance Wednesday.

Piedi Bianchi is entered in the Henderson and the $75,000 Merrillville over six furlongs and figures to race in the latter spot, provided the Henderson stays on turf. Trained by New York-based Carlos Martin, Piedi Bianchi returned to Indiana for the first time in almost two years when she dominated an open Indiana-bred dirt-sprint allowance race last month. There, she easily beat Krunch, one of her chief rivals Wednesday, and even though she is not trained by Kim Hammond, Piedi Bianchi looks formidable.