Nice debut points out Indyanne

Nice debut points out Indyanne

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Indyanne, the most impressive winner of the Bay Meadows meet, returns to action in the $60,000 Bay Meadows Debutante on Saturday.

A $375,000 purchase by David and Jill Heerensperger, the 2-year-old Indyanne won her debut by 10 lengths on opening day here Aug. 22. Trainer Greg Gilchrist said after the race she was as good as any filly he had trained, including the 1994 Breeders' Cup Sprint runner-up, Soviet Problem.

Gilchrist, whose runners win 56 percent of their second starts, thinks Indyanne will be even better with a race under her belt.

"It's the whole racing situation you get to go through, in the paddock, loading in the gate with the other runners," he said. "It's all the experience you gain going through the process."

Indyanne was never challenged in her debut after breaking sharply from the outside post.

"One thing I did like was the way she galloped out last time," Gilchrist said. "She didn't slow down much after the wire. I'm sure she'll get a mile."

She has to get only six furlongs on Saturday. She drew post 2 and will meet five rivals. Among them are the stakes winner Slew's Bet, the stakes-placed Kooky Kelly and her stablemate This Side Up, who won her debut at Santa Rosa.

Slew's Bet's trainer, Doug Utley, concedes he's probably running for second, but he said, "Any of them can get beat, and most anything that will happen, will happen to 2-year-olds."

Utley knows about upsets. His Avenging Force handed King Glorious the only loss of his career in the 1989 Gold Rush at Golden Gate Fields, and his Quite Extraordinary knocked off Salt Lake in the 1992 Golden Bear at Golden Gate Fields.

David Lopez, who rode This Side Up in her maiden victory, will get the call aboard Indyanne with the jockey in her debut, Russell Baze, serving a 15-day suspension.

"She does everything right," Lopez said. "I worked her early, and she always worked like a good filly. She does things easy, and she won easily the first time."

Gilchrist said Indyanne is a "push-button" runner.

"She can breeze fast or very slow," he said. "When she gallops, she's easy on herself. She's not one to exert negative energy in the morning. She's been that way from the start."