Indiana Downs: Amoss can complete huge meet with Futurity win

SHELBYVILLE, Ind. – When the Indiana Downs meeting closes Saturday, trainer Tom Amoss will have won his third consecutive training title at the track.

“You have to have the horses that fit and the owners that let you run them where you want,” Amoss said. “You have to have great owners to win a title.”

Amoss not only won this year’s title, he won it by a huge margin. Through Thursday, Amoss had won 79 races, 43 more than his closest pursuer, Marvin Johnson. Two of Amoss’s owners, Maggi Moss and Midwest Thoroughbreds, have accounted for 54 of his wins at Indiana Downs.

Amoss is based at Churchill Downs, where he has 32 stalls. He has 26 stalls at Indiana Downs.

“That may change next year,” Amoss said. “They just built two barns at Indiana Downs and are planning more. Hopefully, next year we can get more stalls, although what we had this year was very generous.”

Amoss has used leading rider Malcom Franklin most of the meet.

“Agent Jimmy McNerney usually has the best rider,” Amoss said. “I tried him a little bit early in the year, and he was great on dirt and turf, so we went with him.”

There are four Indiana-bred stakes on closing day. Amoss has favored Bisque in the $85,000 Indiana Futurity, a one-mile race on the main track.

“I thought he was going to win that last one easily, but he finished second,” Amoss said, referring to the six-furlong Hillsdale Stakes. “Hopefully, we have done what we need to do to get him to go two turns. I think we have.”

Amoss is taking a wait-and-see attitude with Bisque.

“This race will tell us a lot,” he said. “He has a win over the turf. We may shut it down and stay in the Indiana program or we may take him some place and run him on the turf against horses other than Indiana-breds.”

In the $85,000 Miss Indiana Stakes, trainer Mike Passero has an entry comprised of Sliver of Hope and Mystorymyway. Sliver of Hope will be looking for her third consecutive victory. A full field of 12 was entered in the one-mile event.

A full field also was drawn for the $150,000 To Much Coffee. Needmore Cash will be looking for his second straight win for trainer Jeff Greenhill. The 3-year-old gelding won the Gus Grissom locally Oct. 5.

In the final stakes on the card, Greenhill will send out Ain’t She a Saint in the $150,000 Frances Slocum. Ain’t She a Saint will be looking for her second consecutive win after taking the Richmond by nearly nine lengths.