Operation Stevie stretches out in Gus Grissom

Mind Your Biscuits proved last Saturday in the Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs he was more than a one-turn kind of horse, and on a far smaller scale Operation Stevie can do the same Tuesday afternoon at Indiana Grand.

Operation Stevie is part of a field of 12 3-year-olds and up in the $100,000 Gus Grissom, one of two 1 1/16-mile dirt stakes Tuesday at Indiana Grand restricted to Indiana-bred and Indiana-sired horses. The Grissom, race 8 with a scheduled post time of 5:21 Eastern, is immediately preceded by the Richmond (post time 4:53) for fillies and mares.

Operation Stevie, trained by Cipriano Contreras, who owns him with Earl Trostrud, has run six furlongs in his last five starts and done so effectively. In August, he won the $104,000 William Henry Harrison, and in September he rallied hard to finish a close second to heavily favored Revenant One in the $105,000 Brickyard Stakes.

In his races around two turns, Operation Stevie employs the same style – drop to the back, come with one run – as he does in one-turn races. Operation Stevie started his campaign in a second-level two-turn allowance race at Oaklawn Park and dead-heated for first. He finished third one year ago in the Grissom.

The two that finished in front of him in the 2017 Grissom, Crafty Spector and Derby Express, are in the Grissom field, but Operation Stevie has a higher baseline than that pair, even in routes, and stands a good chance of turning the tables Tuesday. There are plenty of pace elements entered in the Grissom, and the front-runners figure to go fast enough to create late-race inefficiencies that would assist Operation Stevie’s finish.

One issue: All this is obvious. Operation Stevie is 7-5 on the morning line, a terrible price on a deep closer in a full field over a distance probably not his best and on a surface that often promotes speed horses.

But finding alternatives to the favorite looks tough. Bizerk is second choice on the line at 7-2, and were this race on turf he would figure a major player. Bizerk has improved many lengths through the summer, but the form jump appears to have been all about grass racing. And in the end, the Grissom might be all about the favorite.

Express Run can go one better

Express Run was second by a head a year ago in the $100,000 Richmond Stakes but is the pick to break through and win the race Tuesday.

Trained by Bernie Flint, Express Run comes off three turf races and has form suggesting she is a length or so better on dirt. In the 2017 Richmond she set the pace and was nipped at the wire, but Express Run goes perfectly well pressing or stalking the leaders and can get the right trip from post 8 under Deshawn Parker on Tuesday.

Express Run’s 3-1 morning-line price would be very fair, although the odds seem likely to go lower. Hay Little Bit is listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite but Express Run probably will be the shorter price.

Hay Little Bit got an excellent rail-skimming ride from Andes Ulloa to win the six-furlong Merrillville Stakes going six furlongs last month, but that was a peak performance from the 6-year-old mare, and Express Run has finished in front of her in all their recent meetings.

Rail-drawn Expect Indy also is pegged at 3-1 on the line. She was fourth behind Hay Little Bit in the Merrillville but stands the better chance of the two stretched out to her preferred two-turn trip in the Richmond.