Horseshoe Indianapolis meet attracts Chicago crowd

Rebranded, the former Indiana Grand (which was the former Indiana Downs) opens a 127-day 2022 race meeting on Tuesday as Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Rebranded and, from the feel of things, relocated. A not insignificant portion of the Chicago racing community has moved southeast to Shelbyville, Ind., a 30-minute drive from downtown Indianapolis.

Chicago racing has been teetering for years, and with Arlington closed this season – and no Thoroughbred racing at all during the heart of summer in Chicago – the shift from Illinois to Indiana has intensified.

Chris Polzin, who used to be racing secretary at Arlington, enters his second full season holding that position at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Polzin said several stalwart Chicago trainers – Michele Boyce, Jimmy DiVito, Ingrid Mason, Mike Reavis, and Tom Swearingen, to name a few – have Horseshoe stalls this season.

John Dooley, former track announcer at Arlington, has assumed that position at Horseshoe with the departure following the 2021 meet of longtime announcer Bill Downes.

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Polzin has brought in much of the staff that worked with him at Arlington, and the racing office had a good opening-day draw – 95 horses are entered in Tuesday’s 10 races, nine for Thoroughbreds, the nightcap for Quarter Horses.

That’s a standard card for this mixed meet. Thoroughbreds form the bulk of racing programs, with one or two Quarter Horse races filling out the back end of regular cards. Six Saturdays are devoted entirely to Quarter Horses. Four other Saturdays – May 7, June 11, July 9, and Aug. 6 – have mixed cards. The regular race week is Monday to Wednesday, post time 2:30 p.m. Eastern, with three Thursday cards (post time 3:30) added in November before the meet concludes Nov. 23.

The Saturday, July 9, card is the meet highlight, featuring the Grade 3, $300,000 Indiana Derby and the Grade 3, $200,000 Indiana Oaks. The 38-race, $4.1 million stakes schedule tilts strongly toward Indiana-bred and Indiana-sired racing, with many of the stakes clustered toward the end of the meet.

Opening-day purses total $297,000, though this card is heavier than normal on maiden special weight and allowance races that offer bigger pots than the claimers generally comprising daily fare. An attached casino, owned by Caesars, robustly supports the purse structure.

A new 105-stall barn has meaningfully increased the ontrack equine population, and cards regularly attract shippers from Kentucky. A new dormitory has eased overcrowding for backstretch workers.

Indiana breeders continue to churn out foals, and day-to-day racing leans heavily on statebred-restricted contests. The opening-day card has five such restricted races, several of which drew full fields or close to it.

This is the second year that Horseshoe has kept 400 stalls open for winter training, a boon to April entries, since many Indiana horsemen don’t leave the state during winter months. The meet’s second card, on Wednesday, also filled well, and entries will get a boost when turf racing begins May 7 or thereabouts.