Streaking Clicquot has no problem with Indiana Oaks
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Clicquot won her third race in a row and first stakes, easily besting five foes in the Grade 3, $200,000 Indiana Oaks on Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Clicquot, under Edgar Morales, got what in most circumstances would qualify as a perfect trip, sitting third in the pocket, racing at the heels of pacesetting Heavenly Sunset for three-quarters of this dirt route. But the Horseshoe Indianapolis main track tilted heavily toward front-runners Saturday and had pacesetting Heavenly Sunset been herself, perhaps she’d have put up a fight. Heavenly Sunset, the chief on-paper rival for 11-10 favorite Clicquot, fired a dud, fading to a distant last, and, as Heavenly Sunset checked out at the quarter pole, Clicquot leapt into action, splitting horses, hitting the front at about the three-sixteenths marker and going on to a four-length victory.
Visually impressive, Clicquot ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.42, on the face of things a fast time, but on this track, maybe not all that fast. Alpine Princess earlier on the card won the listed Marie Hulman George getting the same distance in 1:41.24. Top, an 11-1 shot who was coming out of an Indiana win over first-level dirt sprint allowance foes, finished second, two lengths in front of Sturgeon Moon.
Brendan Walsh trains Clicquot ($4.20) for X-Men Racing IV, Madaket Stables, and SF Stables. By Quality Road out of Royal Obsession, by Tapit, Clicquot, bred by the Don Alberto Corporation, was sent to auction as a yearling but failed to meet a $375,000 reserve. She posted official workouts as far back as March 2024, but didn’t debut until this past March, finishing sixth as the even-money favorite in a seven-furlong Gulfstream Park maiden. Clicquot impressively won a one-turn Keeneland race in her second start, stretched out to two turns and landed a Churchill first-level allowance, and became a graded-stakes winner in the Indiana Oaks.
“She’s worth looking at a big prize with now,” Walsh said.
Clicquot came from only a few lengths off the pace Saturday, yet she still overcame a track bias to keep her winning streak going.
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