Seminole Chief prevails in Jonathan Schuster Memorial; In The Stars shines bright in Indiana General Assembly Distaff
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Seminole Chief upset the Jonathan Schuster Memorial after second favorite In the Stars won the Indiana General Assembly Distaff in turf stakes racing Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Junior Alvarado rode his third stakes winner on the card aboard Seminole Chief, who turned a perfect pressing trip into a three-quarters-length win at 14-1. His price wouldn’t have been nearly so high had Seminole Chief run in the $100,000 Schuster at his 2025 peak, which won him the $150,000 Appleton Stakes two Marches ago at Gulfstream.
But Seminole Chief lost his form last summer and, after dismal runs in February and April, wound up in the barn of trainer Joe Sharp. For Sharp, Seminole Chief won a $75,000 claiming race June 17 at Churchill and sprang back to his best in the Schuster.
Racing over a course rated firm despite rain earlier in the day, Seminole Chief sat second as Encino set splits of 22.66 and 47.09 over a turf course that regularly yields fast times. Alvarado attacked around the far turn and Seminole Chief nosed in front at the three-eighths marker, but Encino, the 2025 Schaefer winner, came right back, the two going tooth and nail to the sixteenth pole, whereupon Seminole Chief edged clear to the wire.
Baby Max stalked mid-pack before coming inside two drifting rivals in upper stretch, finishing outside the two leaders to nab second, just a neck in front of Wadsworth. Wadsworth, Encino’s Brad Cox-trained stablemate, sliced between rivals with a good run at the eighth pole, finished between Baby Max and Seminole Chief, and probably wins in another 20 yards. Encino held fourth, a neck behind his stablemate.
Seminole Chief ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.88 and paid $30.60. Sharp trains the gelded 5-year-old son of Girvin and the Dunkirk mare Secret Song for Brad Grady and David Grund.
In the Stars closed from sixth of eight in the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff, taking full advantage of a hot pace and getting first run on even-money favorite Miwa with a four-wide sweep into the homestretch under Luis Saez. In the Stars hit the front at about the furlong grounds and stayed strong to the wire, winning by 1 1/2 lengths over Princess Attitude. Miwa couldn’t quicken sufficiently and checked in third, a half-length out of second.
In the Stars got her 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.14 and paid $8.20. Rusty Arnold trains the filly for G. Watts Humphrey, and In the Stars appears to be a rising turf-stakes horse. A 4-year-old, In the Stars is by Into Mischief out of the top-class race mare Stellar Wind, a daughter of Curlin who did all her best work on dirt.
In the Stars made four of her first starts on dirt before becoming a full-time grass horse with a breakout Kentucky Downs maiden win last summer. She won her 4-year-old debut, a Keeneland allowance race, and had been a solid fourth in the Grade 3 Mint Julep before capturing her first stakes on Saturday.
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