Hot Little Thing sizzles in Back Home Again Stakes romp

If the final times are to be believed, Hot Little Thing was by far the fastest Indiana-bred 2-year-old to race Wednesday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Hot Little Thing smoked seven rivals in the $102,600 Back Home Again Stakes, winning by 14 1/2 lengths over Corningstone while running six furlongs in 1:10.43. The filly’s clocking came back a whopping 2.34 seconds faster than it took the gelding Good Forever to win the $103,675 Circle City Stakes about a half-hour later.

Hot Little Thing, who made a clear early lead under Alex Achard, went her opening half-mile in 46.47 seconds, not too much faster than the 46.66-second half in the Circle City. But where the pace, including favored Bruster Justice, fell apart in the race populated by colts and geldings, Hot Little Thing finished strongly, getting her final quarter-mile in 23.96, a fierce come-home time for a 2-year-old on dirt. Hot Little Thing would have won had she merely finished moderately, but instead she dominated, paying $4.20 to win, a generous price in retrospect. Corningstone, who came from the back of the field, was a neck better than Blue Light Special.

Rodolphe Brisset trains Hot Little Thing for September Farm, Union Park Thoroughbreds, Storyteller Racing, and Jonathan Wilmot. The filly, bred by Elevage II and St. Elias Stable, is by Army Mule out of Bouffant, by Uncle Mo – a strong pedigree by Indiana standards.

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The Circle City went to a Genaro Garcia-trained horse – just not the one widely expected to win. While Bruster Justice, the 19-10 Garcia-trained favorite, was laboring in upper stretch, Good Forever, an 18-1 shot, was in the process of being extricated from traffic by jockey Marcelino Pedroza. Pedroza had a lot of horse at the quarter pole but was stuck for a half-furlong behind two tiring rivals. Good Forever went around that pair before Pedroza steered inside, Good Forever coming home 2 3/4 lengths in front of runner-up Healing Waters. Taillights, a 62-1 shot, was third.

Good Forever ($39.40) came into the race a two-start maiden and came out of it a stakes winner for Southwest Racing. Bred by Hidden Springs Farm, Good Forever is by Forever d’Oro out of Grandiosa, by El Prado.