Soothsay overcomes poor start to win Indiana Oaks

Soothsay lost the Indiana Oaks at the start yet somehow managed to win it anyway.

The California shipper, trainer Richard Mandella’s first starter at Indiana Grand, had raced close to the pace in her first two route races, but after leaping in the air at the start, she wound up last in the Grade 3, $200,000 Indiana Oaks.

“I couldn’t get her to take a breather and relax in the gate,” jockey Flavien Prat said. “We went to Plan B.”

A good plan can be executed better under calm circumstances, and Prat never panicked. Racing from last much of the trip as Lovely Ride set a moderate pace, going her first half-mile in a tepid 48.88 seconds, Soothsay and Prat began closing into contention around the far turn, continuing resolutely through the Indiana Grand homestretch and just surging past 40-1 shot Moon Swag in the dying strides to win by a neck.

“It was just a matter if she could make up the ground,” said Prat, who has ridden Soothsay for Mandella and Raydelz Stable in all four of her starts.

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Lovely Ride faded along what appeared to be a dead rail and finished fifth as Moon Swag got the better of another California invader, Lady Aces, by a head to earn the place. Marion Francis, who pressed the pace, got the worst of a four-horse blanket finish. Favored Will’s Secret chugged along midpack, never reached contention, and checked in sixth.

Soothsay had won the Santa Anita Oaks in her second start and most recently was second to the talented Crazy Beautiful in the Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita. Her trip to the Midwest and the unanticipated trip brought out the best in a lightly raced filly who ought to have more improvement left in her. Soothsay is by Distorted Humor out of Spellbound, by Bernardini.