A stakes in everything but name

The seventh race Friday at Indiana Grand has a “where’d that come from?” feel to it. A six-furlong dirt sprint, the race has two allowance conditions and is open to $62,500 claimers, and it might well be the best non-stakes field ever assembled at the central Indiana track.

The seven-horse field includes Candip, a multiple-stakes-winning sprinter last seen finishing second in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream; S’maverlous, a Grade 2 winner making his first start in almost a year; Matrooh, who three races ago finished third in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap; Rivers Run Deep, who ranks among the best Ohio-breds in recent history and is closing in hard on $1 million in career earnings; and Lewys Vaporizer, who is perfect in three Indiana Grand starts and has a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 101.

“I think everybody had the same idea,” said Mike Tomlinson, who trains Candip, the 5-2 morning-line favorite.

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Candip won the $100,000 Iowa Sprint on July 2, 2016, and the 2017 edition of that race comes up Saturday. But since Candip hasn’t started since January, Tomlinson decided against bringing him back from a layoff in a stakes.

“He didn’t have any particular injury,” Tomlinson said. “He just got tired and had some wear-and-tear issues. We just decided to give him some time off and hope he comes back the same. He’s been on a steady breeze schedule and is working just fine.”

The same day Candip won the Iowa Sprint last summer, S’maverlous finished fourth in the $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap. But S’maverlous injured a tendon, according to trainer Mike Maker, and has not raced since then. S’maverlous has come back well from the injury, Maker said, but the 7-year-old gelding’s emergence from relative obscurity last year coincided with a switch from sprints to routes, and Friday’s race could be too short.

“It’s a tough spot, but we need to get him started again,” said Maker.

Lewys Vaporizer’s form has been in and out and all over the place, and though he always has run well at Indiana, this is a tougher group than he’s beaten.

The pick to win, presumably at a fair price, is Rivers Run Deep. The 6-year-old gelding trained by Chris Hartman has ruled Ohio-bred sprint-stakes competition and has proved his worth in open company, too. His career record at six furlongs stands at a remarkable 15-4-2 from 23 starts, and Rivers Run Deep is only two wins from becoming a millionaire.

◗ Irap, who won the Blue Grass Stakes in April and the Ohio Derby on June 24, will make his next start July 15 in the Indiana Derby. Trained by the California-based Doug O’Neill, Irap shipped from his Ohio Derby win to Prairie Meadows, where O’Neill was running a horse this week, and will have one workout there, his trainer said, before traveling to Indiana Grand.

◗ Fernando de La Cruz, the leading rider at Indiana Grand in 2014 and 2016, returned to action last week after missing about three months because of a shoulder injury sustained in a gate incident at Tampa Bay Downs. De La Cruz will ride the rest of the Indiana Grand meeting, according to his agent, Don Cespedes.