Hoosier Philly could return in Rachel Alexandra Stakes

Wonder Wheel, who is exercising at trainer Mark Casse’s Casse Farm in Florida toward her 3-year-old debut, overcame a tough trip to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. A two-time Grade 1 winner during 2022, she’s sure to be named champion 2-year-old filly at the Eclipse Awards later this month. But you can bet your last dollar that Tom Amoss would not – as trainers are wont to state – trade places with anyone when it comes to 3-year-old fillies of 2023.

Amoss on Jan. 1 welcomed unbeaten Hoosier Philly to his Fair Grounds barn. Hoosier Philly during her 2-year-old campaign won a Churchill Downs maiden sprint by 1 3/4 lengths; the sloppy-track, two-turn Rags to Riches there by 7 1/2 lengths; and the Grade 2 Golden Rod, a fast-track route, by five lengths on Nov. 26.

The chart-caller at Churchill clearly was impressed: “frolicked,” reads the short comment from the Rags to Riches, “in hand, easily” the Golden Rod comment. None of the filly’s Beyer Speed Figures are anything to write home about, an 81 from the Golden Rod her peak, but Hoosier Philly, by Into Mischief out of the Tapit mare Tapella, comes into the season with sky-high expectations.

“If she stays healthy, she is going to wow the world,” Amoss told Fair Grounds publicity last week.

Reached by phone this past weekend, Amoss said Hoosier Philly had been out of training at a Florida farm for about one month after the Golden Rod. She went back under tack Dec. 26 and should not take long to get ready, said Amoss, who expects to breeze Hoosier Philly within a week.

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“She’s a tall, long filly, not physically imposing. She doesn’t have a colt look to her,” Amoss said.

All being well, Hoosier Philly will make her comeback in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 18. That could lead to the Fair Grounds Oaks and on to the Kentucky Oaks, which Amoss won in 2019 with Serengeti Empress.

Curly Jack, a 3-year-old colt, was second in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club the same day as the Golden Rod and has been on the same schedule as Hoosier Philly, coming into the Amoss barn Jan. 1.

“I don’t know how much she needed the time, but I thought it was a great benefit for Curly Jack. Weight-wise he really needed it, and he looks great now,” Amoss said.

Curly Jack, by Good Magic, won the Grade 3 Iroquois in September and in the Kentucky Jockey Club was coming back just 22 days after a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Amoss also reported that Sixtythreecaliber, winner of the Grade 3 Comely at Aqueduct in her most recent start, goes to the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 28.

◗ Fair Grounds is averaging only 7.16 starters per race this meet, and the featured third race Thursday will do nothing to help that number, with just five older fillies and mares entered in a second-level dirt-route allowance also open to $50,000 claimers.

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