Leading the Charge's speed an asset in Bucchero repeat bid

Two allowance races, then win the Bucchero Stakes – it worked for Leading the Charge in 2021, and the pattern has a good chance of holding again Wednesday.

On Beyer Speed Figures, Leading the Charge is a faster horse this season at age 5 than he was a year ago. Last August, Leading the Charge was a one-length winner of the $100,000 Bucchero for Indiana-bred older horses over 1 1/16 miles on turf, and he will be favored to win it again at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

With a full field on a tight turf course, victory will require luck along with talent. Leading rider Marcelino Pedroza is booked to ride Leading the Charge for Robert Dobbs, who trains Leading the Charge for his breeder, Team Block.

The Bucchero, race 8 with post time set for 6:07 p.m. Eastern, immediately follows its sister race, the $100,000 Peony, for older Indiana-bred fillies and mares. Both races attracted more entrants than the dozen permitted to start. The Peony has a main-track-only horse and one also-eligible, the Bucchero a pair of also-eligibles.

Leading the Charge is a special kind of homebred. He’s by Suntracer, bred and campaigned by Team Block, and out of Dashel, also bred and campaigned by Team Block. Dashel is by Cashel Castle, bred and campaigned by Team Block, and out of Dancing Das, part-owned by Team Block.

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Chris Block, son of Team Block founder David Block, trained all these horses at least for some portion of their career. Dobbs, Leading the Charge’s trainer, competed against several of them as a longtime assistant to former trainer Christine Janks and has guided Leading the Charge through a 14-start campaign that has yielded seven wins, all on grass.

The 2021 Bucchero marked just his second turf-stakes start, and where Leading the Charge won that renewal coming off Indiana-bred allowance starts, this year he exits a win in an open second-level allowance and a close fourth in a third-level allowance that drew a listed-stakes-class field. Leading the Charge has pace, and Pedroza ought to be able to plop him right into the pocket after breaking from post 2.

Max Express was second in the 2021 Bucchero and third in Leading the Charge’s second-level allowance win but starts for a cold barn. Jeopardy Theory is 3 for 3 on grass and was much the best in the age-restricted Snack Stakes on July 9 but gets a mere three pounds from the likely favorite.

Bumble of Love returns to try and win the Peony for the second straight year, but the mare is marooned in post 12 while carrying top weight of 127 pounds. She and Timeless Rose dead-heated Aug. 3 in an Indiana-bred turf-allowance prep for the Peony, and Timeless Rose, second a year ago in the Peony, has a better draw in post 7.

Timeless Rose’s trainer, Tony Granitz, also sends out 3-year-old Louder Than Words, who gets five pounds from the older mares and has latitude to show meaningful improvement in just her second turf route. In her first such start, the Ellen’s Lucky Star earlier this meet, she finished third behind two Peony entrants, Mama Kamala and Holy Justice, both of whom had a better trip than Louder Than Words.